Posted by Joshua on Monday, November 12th, 2012

Mouaz al-Khatib, a former imam at the famous Umayyad mosque in Damascus, was voted as president. Riad Seif, who proposed the initiative to form the new group, and female activist Suhair al-Atassi were chosen as deputies. All three have served time in Syrian prisons and left the country recently. (See BBC’s Excellent profile of Khatib)

It is a big day for the Syrian opposition. Defying naysayers and skeptics, the opposition came together in Doha to follow the outlines of the Riad Seif plan. Opposition members the world over are electrified by the outcome and moving speeches given by the opposition’s new leadership. Assad regime must be worried, as it has survived for 42 years thanks to Syria’s fragmentation.

Now the challenge will be to unite the militias on the ground in Syria behind the new civilian leadership. The role of Qatar, the US, France and Britain have been central in encouraging unity.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council says it has recognized the new broad-based Syrian opposition group as the legitimate representatives of the Syrian people. Monday’s statement is the first formal recognition for the newly united opposition group that seeks to topple President Bashar Assad. It also could be another step toward opening up greater military aid to the rebels from the Gulf states such as Qatar, which hosted the Syrian opposition meeting.

His assembly was recognized by the six Sunni Muslim-ruled kingdoms of the Gulf Cooperation Council as “the legitimate representative of the Syrian people”. Washington said it would back it “as it charts a course toward the end of Assad’s bloody rule and the start of the peaceful, just, democratic future”.

The Arab League welcomed the formation of the new body, called on other opposition groups to join it and described it as “a legitimate representative and a primary negotiator”, but fell short of calling it the new authority in Syria.

DOHA – Syrian opposition leaders struck a hard-won deal on Sunday under intense international pressure to form a broad, new coalition to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad and chose a popular Islamist activist to head the body.

Mouaz al-Khatib, a former imam at the famous Umayyad mosque in Damascus, was voted as president. Riad Seif, who proposed the initiative to form the new group, and female activist Suhair al-Atassi were chosen as deputies.

Delegates, who had struggled for days in the Qatari capital Doha to find the unity their Western and Arab backers have long urged, said the coalition would ensure a voice for religious and ethnic minorities and for the rebels fighting on the ground, who have complained of being overlooked by exiled dissident groups.

Riad Seif, a Syrian businessman who served in the Syrian Parliament and then spent several terms in jail as a political dissident, was the principal organizer of the new initiative and was elected a deputy president of the new group. Suhair al Atassi, a female anti-Assad activist, was elected as a second vice president.

Jones, the U.S. official, urged the new organization, whose full name is the Syrian National Coalition for the Forces of the Opposition and the Revolution, to set up a technical group with which the international community can “work quickly.” She said she was sending a top level official to London to attend an emergency aid meeting that the British government has called for Friday.

In late October, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly called for the new group to supplant the Syrian National Council, which had been the biggest exile umbrella group. Founded little over a year ago, the SNC has been widely criticized for infighting, lackluster leadership, and a failure to raise sufficient funds or to establish close links with fighting groups inside Syria.

But the new coalition may face some of the same organizational problems that the Syrian National Council did. Syrian emigres do not have well-formed political parties, no surprise after four decades of a police state dictatorship, and the only group that appears able to develop a political strategy is the Muslim Brotherhood.

A second problem is the political constellation under which the new coalition was formed – public pressure from the United States, which is widely criticized by Syrians in and out of the country for giving plenty of advice but having done little to arm the rebels.

The new group also must determine how to incorporate the original Syrian National Council into its operation. The council this past week restructured itself and elected a Christian, George Sabra, as its president. Sabra immediately called for the international community to arm the rebels. “We need arms. We need arms. We need arms,” Sabra said, a distinctly more vigorous presentation than Khatib’s on Sunday night.

The government of Qatar, which hosted both the council’s organizational talks and the discussions that led to the creation of the Syrian National Coalition, invited both groups to stay in Doha until Nov. 25 in order to figure out how to meld their organizations.

Additionally, U.S. officials also may face difficulty rationalizing Khatib’s positions with U.S. policy. Western diplomats said Khatib has been a critic of twin accords agreed to in Cairo last July that Riad Seif was instrumental in drafting that specify that a post-Assad Syria should be secular in nature. Khatib has been critical of the documents because they make no reference to Islamic Shariah law.

Jones’ statement made clear that the U.S. government will not accept changes in the Cairo documents. “The basis of our cooperation remains the National Compact and the Transition plan announced in Cairo last July, as well as respect for human rights protections and equal treatment for all Syrian citizens,” the statement said.

Asked by e-mail whether she had made the statement out of concern for Khatib’s previous positions, Jones’ spokesman said he had no comment.

DOHA, Qatar — Fractious Syrian opposition groups finally struck a deal Sunday to form a new umbrella organization after a week of heated negotiations that were nearly derailed on several occasions.

The new organization, called the National Coalition for Revolutionary Forces and the Syrian Opposition, is intended to act as the single entity that manages the political and military affairs of the opposition and as the conduit for humanitarian and military aid.

At the end of October, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the Syrian National Council, the opposition group formed in August 2011, could no longer claim to be the credible leader of the opposition.

In recent months, the SNC has been criticized as an ineffectual organization out of touch with events on the ground in Syria.

Although many details of the structure of the new coalition and the timeline for achieving its political goals remained largely undefined Sunday, international supporters of the opposition praised the agreement and highlighted what appeared to be a new willingness of activists to work together.

A Syrian opposition conference held in Cairo in July led to fistfights between some activists.

“The regime fears most that the opposition unifies,” said Riyad Hijab, the former Syrian prime minister who defected in August and attended the opposition conference last week. “I know that. I was part of that regime.”

International backers of the opposition hope that a credible leadership for the group could win the support of ordinary Syrians and reduce the influence of extremist groups that are on the rise in the country….

Moaz Khatib, former imam of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, was named president of the new coalition. Khatib, who appeared at the signing ceremony Sunday night wearing a gray suit rather than clerical robes, is viewed as a religious moderate and is widely respected by opposition members inside and outside Syria. Riad Seif, a longtime activist who led the initiative to start a new coalition, and Suhair Atassi, a prominent female activist, were named vice presidents.

“After long suffering, the multiple national forces have reached a coalition of one front to help our people who are being slaughtered every day on the watch of the world,” Khatib said at the signing ceremony, which was attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davatoglu and Qatar’s prime minister, Hamad Bin Jasim al-Thani.

The leaders of the coalition said that gaining international recognition was a top priority and that Khatib may head to Cairo as soon as Monday to pursue recognition from the Arab League.

That would be followed by a push to get recognition from the Friends of Syria group, which includes the United States, followed by a pitch to the United Nations. Many prominent activists said they had received repeated assurances from their foreign backers that they would receive recognition quickly.

By Faisal Baatout (AFP) –

DOHA — …. After four days of marathon talks in Qatar, the Syrian National Council finally signed up to a wider, more representative bloc centred on a government-in-waiting, as demanded by Arab and Western states.

… Reservations in SNC ranks about what many members saw as a move to sideline it had prompted repeated delays in the Doha talks and mounting frustration among other dissident groups and the opposition’s Arab and Western supporters. But after negotiations ran into the early hours of Sunday and resumed in the afternoon, the anti-Assad factions agreed to form a “National Coalition of Forces of the Syrian Revolution and Opposition.”

“We signed a 12-point agreement to establish a coalition,” said leading dissident Riad Seif, who drew up the US-backed reform proposals on which Sunday’s agreement was based. In a copy of the document obtained by AFP, the parties “agree to work for the fall of the regime and of all its symbols and pillars,” and rule out any dialogue with the regime….

They agreed to unify the fighting forces under a supreme military council and to set up a national judicial commission for rebel-held areas….A provisional government would be formed after the coalition gains international recognition, and a transitional government formed after the regime has fallen.

The deal came after the SNC, which had formerly been seen as the main opposition group, heeded Arab and Western pressure to agree to a new structure embracing groups that had been unwilling to join its ranks.

Former prime minister Riad Hijab, who fled to neighbouring Jordan in August in the highest-ranking defection from Assad’s government, hailed the agreement as “an advanced step towards toppling the regime.”

DOHA, Qatar — Syria’s biggest political opposition bloc Friday elected a Christian, George Sabra, as president, a move Sabra said showed that the Muslim-majority nation will not allow its national uprising to descend into sectarian war.

Sabra, a geography teacher who once wrote for the Arabic version of “Sesame Street,” immediately demanded that the international community provide arms to the rebels so that they can protect Syrian civilians from regime attack.

Western nations, he told reporters after the vote by the Syrian National Council, should “support our right to survival.” He added, “To protect ourselves, we need weapons.”

Tens of thousands of Syrians have died in the uprising, which began as peaceful demonstrations against the government of President Bashar Assad. But it has become a bloody civil war pitting the Syrian army and air force against rebels who despite a lack of heavy weapons have seized large swaths of Syrian countryside and have fought loyalist forces to a standstill in Aleppo, the country’s largest city.

Sabra seemed stunned by his sudden elevation to the council’s top post. “It is an unbelievable moment in my life,” he told reporters. “I promise to become a representative for all the Syrian people.”

It was uncertain whether Sabra’s selection would rehabilitate the Syrian National Council in the eyes of the United States. Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the U.S. no longer would recognize the council as the primary anti-Assad organization, saying too many of its members had lived in exile for decades and that a new opposition group should include more representation from people fighting inside Syria.

Sabra may help fit that requirement. A longtime member of Syria’s communist party, which renamed itself the Syrian Democratic People’s Party in 2005, Sabra went into exile only in October after serving two months in prison for inciting dissent. Previously, he had served eight years in prison during the regime of Bashar Assad’s father, Hafez Assad.

Sabra credited his election to the intervention of a conservative Islamist from Homs, a Sunni Muslim city that has been the scene of brutal fighting between rebels and pro-Assad forces for most of this year.

Until the Islamist, Wasal al Shamali, who was here representing the Supreme Council for Revolutionary Commands, a collection of rebel-held cities in Syria, spoke on Sabra’s behalf, Sabra wasn’t even a member of the group’s top governing committee, the general secretariat. The Syrian National Council has been criticized because its 41-member secretariat includes no women or Alawites, the religious offshoot of Shiite Islam to which Assad belongs.

Shamali, however, said that Sabra should have his place on the general secretariat.

“I didn’t even know his name,” Sabra told McClatchy. “He was in tears.”

Added Sabra: “After that, who can talk about sectarianism when a Muslim sacrifices his place for a Christian?”

The group later elected Sabra its president, 28-13, over Hisham Marwah, an Islamic legal scholar.

Sabra said his selection should signal to the international community: “Look at Syria. There is no sectarianism inside Syria. All the people here, Muslims, voted for Christians.”

He said the Syria that he and others are fighting for “doesn’t have minorities and majorities. We have citizenship. And as I am a citizen, my colleagues elected me.”

Whether that sentiment translates inside Syria is less clear. In recent weeks, fighting has broken out between Arab rebels and Kurdish militias in Aleppo, and some Sunni Muslims have vowed revenge on Alawites for their support of Assad. The country’s organized Christian religious groups have to date remained firmly allied with the Assad government, saying they fear that the mostly Sunni Muslim rebels won’t protect their rights once Assad is gone. There are also concerns that Islamist militants are playing a growing role in the rebellion.

Concerns of the growing influence of Islamists among the rebels are often cited by U.S. officials for their hesitancy to provide weapons, though many in the opposition argue that the U.S. failure to provide weapons is strengthening the Islamists.

Still to be determined is how Sabra’s election might affect plans, backed by the United States, the Arab League and Qatar, to restructure the opposition.

Under the U.S-backed move, dissident Riad Seif, a successful industrialist from Damascus and former member of the Syrian Parliament, had proposed setting up a new organization, the Syrian National Initiative, with a majority of members not from the Syrian National Council. The Syrian National Initiativewould set up a smaller body of technocrats, who would deal directly with the international community and help funnel humanitarian aid into the country.

Sabra said the SNC would discuss under what conditions it would participate in the new group on Saturday. Sabra said the SNC also would consider an alternative plan that would set up a 300-member assembly primarily of fighters and officials inside Syria to elect a transitional government.

“Our main goal is to unite the opposition to bring down the regime,” Sabra said.

One surprise aspect of the Syrian National Council’s vote Friday was that it was conducted in the open, following a more or less democratic process under which its membership base of 425 voted first for a general secretariat of 41, which then selected the executive committee and the president.

When it came time to vote for the president, the council allowed reporters to witness the process.

Syria’s main opposition bloc elects Christian former teacher as new president
By Associated Press, Published: November 9

DOHA, Qatar — Syria’s main opposition group in exile elected a left-wing veteran dissident born into a Christian family as its new president on Friday, a choice that could help counter Western concerns about possible Islamist influence over the group.

George Sabra, a Communist-turned-social-democrat and former high school teacher who once wrote for the Arabic version of Sesame Street, said his election as head of the Syrian National Council is proof that Syrians are not beholden to sectarianism.

“This day is a victory of the Syrian people to prove all over the world the reality of the Syrians … as young people shouted in the streets, ‘Syrian people are one, one, one,’” he said moments after his victory was announced at a conference in Doha, Qatar. Sabra’s election came on the eve of a crucial decision for the SNC.

Jordan Said to Help Arm Syria Rebels
Wall Street Journal, November 9, 2012
Shipments Are Routed Through Border as Kingdom Steps Up Aid, Opposition Members Say; Amman Denies Connection
By NOUR MALAS And MARGARET COKER

AMMAN, Jordan—Jordan has stepped up its support for neighboring Syria’s political and military opposition, including allowing some light arms to flow across the border, according to Syrian rebels and an Arab official familiar with the operation.

Several shipments of arms—including assault rifles, Russian-designed antitank missiles and ammunition—have been delivered to the border in Jordanian military trucks and then taken into Syria by rebel brigades, according to Syrian rebel fighters. Dozens of other shipments have been smuggled to Syria with the covert support of Jordanian border officials, these people say. Saudi Arabia and Qatar pay for these arms and transport them to Jordan, say rebel fighters based along the Syria-Jordan border and a person involved in arms procurement for the rebels….

The Syrian groups receiving arms from the Jordanian border are now connected to the military councils that have been vetted by Washington and others, say people involved in the transaction.

Some of the light weapons said to be entering Syria through Jordan are destined for the southern Syrian border town of Dera’a, where the popular uprising kicked off last year. Most of the arms, though, were pushed north to the suburbs of Damascus, 60 miles north, in possible preparation for a push on the capital, according to rebel leaders.

Mr Assad also rejected calls that he seek a safe exit, vowing he would “live and die in Syria”. “I am not a puppet…. I am Syrian and I must live and die in Syria,” Assad, who is facing a nearly 20-month revolt against his rule, told Russian Arabic-language channel Rusiya Al-Yaum.

Prime Minister David Cameron this week floated the idea of granting Mr Assad safe passage from the country, saying it “could be arranged” though he wanted the Syrian leader to face international justice. Mr Assad also warned against a foreign intervention to deal with Syria’s escalating conflict, saying such a move would have “global consequences” and shake regional stability.

The U.S. has made its boldest move yet on Syria to date, pushing to create a new and better opposition that it can trust—and that it hopes Syrians will too.

In the wake of Barack Obama’s reelection, the United States has decided to take what seasoned observers call its boldest move yet in the conflict in Syria. In Doha this week—the elegant seaside capital of Qatar, the tiny Persian Gulf nation ranked as the world’s wealthiest by Forbes—America, in collaboration with its Qatari ally, is trying to shape a better and more credible opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, following more than a year of infighting between Syria’s notoriously fractious and ineffective resistance.

Wading so directly into Syria’s bloody conflict is fraught with pitfalls for the U.S. government. “It’s a gamble by the State Department to stake such a strong claim in efforts to restructure the opposition,” says Steven Heydemann of the United States Institute for Peace, who has tracked the conflict from the start and who has been part of transition talks with Syrian opposition members. “I think it was a dramatic and risky move. If it works, it will be seen as having been a stroke of diplomatic genius.”

In London, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said talks with rebel military leaders would not involve advice on military tactics or support for their operations. Hague also insisted that Britain would not consider offering weapons to Assad’s opponents.

Syria: leader of rebels warns they might ‘turn into terrorists’
The leader of the Free Syrian Army has called on the outside world to back the rebels before they all “turn into terrorists”.
Syria: leader of rebels warns they might ‘turn into terrorists’
By Richard Spencer, Idlib Province, Syria, and Ruth Sherlock in Doha, 09 Nov 2012

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph in his base in rebel-occupied Syria, Gen. Mustafa al-Sheikh unveiled a new leadership of the Higher Military Council of the FSA, which he heads.

He also said he welcomed David Cameron’s decision to engage with the rebels and even consider organising arms supplies, but he added that war was spreading to surrounding countries, the rebels were fractured and speed was of the essence.

“If there’s no quick decision to support us, we will all turn into terrorists,” he said. “If you apply the pressure that’s been applied to Syria, it will explode in all directions. Terrorism will grow quickly.”

Gen Sheikh was the first of a number of regime army generals to defect to the rebels, joining Col Riad al-Assad at the head of the FSA. The rebels fighting the battles on the ground though are not only divided among themselves but often refuse to recognise his leadership.

Aware that this is a major reason for the reluctance of Western powers to arm them or encourage their Middle Eastern allies to supply rebel forces, on Friday announced a new unified command structure, dividing Syria into five commands each with a defected general at its head.

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad said his future could only be decided through the ballot box, in an interview with Russian television where he warned the country could face a protracted war.

Assad told Russia Today that whether the president can “stay or leave” is a “popular issue” and “the only way (it) can be done (is) through the ballot boxes”. He denied Syria was in “civil war” but said the conflict with rebels could be “a long-term war” if they continued to receive support from abroad.

While much recent media attention has been focused on Hurricane Sandy and America’s presidential election, Syria’s horrific civil war continues. In some places, it has worsened. Aerial bombardment of civilian neighborhoods, deadly sniper fire, brutal street fighting, assassinations, and summary executions have become the norm in Syria. Cease-fire agreements have collapsed, rebel forces remain disorganized, foreign intervention is still hamstrung, and no path to peace appears to be forming yet. Britain is now reportedly looking for options to circumvent an arms embargo in order to supply rebels with weaponry. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad remains defiant, stating in an interview with Russia Today that he planned “live and die in Syria,” adding, “I am tougher than Gaddafi.” Collected here are images of this bloody conflict from just the past few weeks. [48 photos]

Beware of the Islamist Trap
By Monte Palmer

Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing.

Islamists, judging by the use of the term in the global press, is a simplified way of referring to all Muslim groups seeking some form of Islamic rule in the Middle East.

Like most simplistic expressions, “Islamist,” is laden with hidden traps. The first Islamist trap is believing that all Muslim groups seeking some form of Islamic rule in the Middle East are of one mind and body. They are not. The second Islamist trap is assuming that all groups seeking some form of Islamist rule are inherently hostile to the interests of the United States and its allies. Some are, and some are not. The third Islamist trap is thinking that the US and its allies can stop the Islamist surge now sweeping the Middle East by diplomacy, sanctions, and covert action. The verdict on this supposition has yet to be rendered, but the outlook is not promising. The fourth and most lethal Islamist trap is the belief that force alone can stop the Islamists. Iraq and Afghanistan suggest otherwise.

The dangers of assuming that all Islamists are the same is easily illustrated by a brief review of the four main Sunni Islamist currents competing for control of the Middle East.

Islam lite
The most liberal of the four main Islamist currents is Islam Lite, the sarcastic Turkish nickname for the Justice and Development Party that has ruled Turkey within a secular framework for more than a decade. Islam Lite, the most forward looking of the four Islamic currents, has built Turkey into the world’s seventeenth largest economy, consolidated Turkish democracy, brought Turkey to the doorstep of membership in the European Union, reaffirmed Turkey membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and established Turkey as the dominant Muslim power in the Middle East and beyond.

This is not to deny that the Justice and Development Party does have an Islamic agenda that seeks to create a more Islamic state in Turkey and the Arab world. At the domestic level, the Justice and Development Party has implemented sweeping Islamic reforms that promote veiling (head scarfs), prayer in schools, and other Islamic practices outlawed by Turkey’s revolutionary leaders in the aftermath of World War I. While these Islamic reforms are hardly earth shaking, seculars worry that they are but the first step in the Party’s much deeper Islamic agenda.

At the regional and international levels, the Justice and Development Party’s Islamic agenda includes support for Muslim Brotherhood rule in Egypt, Tunisia, and the Gaza Strip. It also calls for an independent Palestinian state in the Occupied Territories. All have soured Turkey’s relations with Israel, but war between the two former allies is not in the picture.

Partnership with the US and EU is an essential component of Islam Lite. Subservience is not. Some observers accuse Turkey of using Islam to extend its regional influence. The Israelis, by contrast, worry that Turkey will use its military power to extend its Islamic reach.

While neither thought can be discounted, the Islamic Lite model practiced in Turkey does demonstrate that moderate Islamic rule is compatible with democracy and development. Much like Turkey itself, the Justice and Development Party provides an avenue for cooperation and dialogue between the West and Muslim currents throughout the Middle East.

Things, however, may not be as simple as they seem. The Turkish model is deeply rooted in Turkish history and culture and may not be exportable to either the Arab world or the Islamic regions of Central Asia. Also problematic is the weakness of Islamic Lite currents in other areas of the Middle East, All, with rare exceptions lack a firm organizational network and their popular support base pales in comparison to those of the Muslim Brotherhood and even the more extremist Salafis.

The Muslim Brotherhood
Next in the hierarchy of religious extremism comes the Muslim Brotherhood, the world’s largest and most powerful Islamic organization. The Brotherhood now rules in Egypt and Tunisia and exercises profound influence throughout the region. The name may differ from place to place, but they are all Brotherhood offshoots…..

New Jihadi Group, Liwa Al-Mujahideen, Established In Syria
Three video clips pertaining to a new jihadi group in Syria, Liwa Al-Mujahideen, were circulated on YouTube during October 2012. The first was an announcement of the group’s establishment; in the second, the group’s commander explained its raison d’etre; and in the third, the group announced that it had formed the Al-Sahaba Battalion, which would operate in the rural region around Damascus.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaida, has called on Muslims around the world to support rebels in Syria who are seeking to overthrow Bashar al-Assad.

The statement is the most explicit attempt yet by the terrorist group to intervene in the ongoing Syrian conflict.

In the eight-minute video titled Onwards, Lions of Syria, posted on extremist websites on Saturday, Zawahiri calls on Muslims in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey to join the uprising against Assad’s “pernicious, cancerous regime”, and warned Syrian rebels not to rely on the west for help.

“Wounded Syria still bleeds day after day while the butcher, son of the butcher Bashar bin Hafiz [Hafez al-Assad], is not deterred to stop,” Zawahiri said. “But the resistance of our people in Syria despite all the pain, sacrifice and bloodshed escalates and grows.”

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta confirmed on Friday that al Qaeda has a “presence in Syria.”

At a briefing at the Pentagon with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Panetta was asked by a reporter, “Secretary Panetta, if I may, on al Qaeda in Syria, you’ve said that we don’t have any indication of al Qaeda in that — those double explosions that took place in Damascus. But what kind of assessment do you have on al Qaeda activity in Syria? Because the Syrian government confirms that al-Qaida is active in Syria. Do you have an indication to say that al Qaeda is actually active, how big it is, and is it a concern for you?”

Panetta responded by confirming the terrorist group’s presence, but provided few details.

Al Qaeda anywhere is a concern for us,” said Panetta. “And we do — we do have intelligence that indicates that there is an al Qaeda presence in Syria. But frankly, we don’t have very good intelligence as to just exactly what their activities are. And that’s the reason we can’t really indicate specifically what they are or are not doing. But they are a concern. And frankly, we need to continue to do everything we can to determine what kind of influence they are trying to exert there.

Electrifying, I am electrically shocked. The Civil War has not yet started in Syria, just so you know, don’t spend too much energy and money on that Israeli-Qatari gas pipeline, it is a pipedream, it will take decades for the idiots to get it: It will never happen that way. Landis writes here with such a vigor, just as if he got off from that xxx rated website.

Israel’s army fired tank shells into Syria on Monday and scored “direct hits” on “Syrian mobile artillery” in response to a Syrian mortar shell that struck the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, the Israeli military said in a statement.

Al Khatib, Atassi, Seif, Sabra, coming from mosques minarets, christian families, from political activism, from entrepreneur background. It sounds so good. For the first time in more than 60 years Syria has created a union with those who can create real chage inside.

Riad Seif, also called by friends Abu Jawad, has created succesfully the biggest enterprise in his life. Once he had a huge company in Sahnaya. The regime ruined his bussiness for trying to promote change in the regime. Today Abu Jawad has created a new company:

– 22 millions of workers
– 22 millions of shareholders
– Beneffits:freedom, dignity in a new Syria for coming generations
– Name of the company: Syrian Arab Republic and co.

“Their remains some, albeit small minorities, of Alawis who are against the killing”

That is utter bollocks, and you know it. No Alawites even believe the army is massacring civilians, so accusing them of this just because YOU believe they do is completely disingenuous.

Either you quit demonising the other side and actually try to understand their beliefs and grievances, or you spread misinformation and become part of the problem.

Persuasion is key, not force. You will have to fight for 30 years if you try to conquer the Alawites and their anti-Salafist allies by force.

You need to rid your own side of extremists before the regular Alawite will listen to reason. As long as you are dominated by the MB and by the Turks/Gulf, they will not trust you. The recent developments in the SNC might be a step in the right direction, if they had expelled all MBers and Salafists, they’d have my vote.

Mouaz al-Khatib is Jewish, his real surname was changed according to “Sijjil Kattab” Syrian family lineage records. Adoption of Islam as “Taqiyye” for deception, is not a way to lead Syrians the way Iraqi Jews did in Arabia.

“That is utter bollocks, and you know it. No Alawites even believe the army is massacring civilians”

The fact that the supporters do not admit the killing of 30,000 Syrians, the vast majority of them are civilians does not mean they do not believe it happened. It only means that they are purposefully denying it hoping to maintain their elite privileges. Denying it is supporting it period.

One can’t see all the destruction inflicted upon the cities and towns in Syria as the result of air bombardment and come and argue that the regime is not killing civilians. One can’t watch the brutality and the killings of the peaceful demonstrators when it first started and come and argue that the regime is not killing civilians and if you do, you won’t be taken seriously.

First: You know very well that the 30.000 number includes fighters and civilians on BOTH sides. By most account, a third are government fighters!

Second: Can you name a single war were cities haven’t been bombarded if an enemy occupied them? I’m not saying it’s ok, I’m simply saying this is the norm in all wars conducted by the benevolent West, and anyone else for that matter.

Three: To them, it is not about “privilege”, but about mere survival.

Again, attempts at understanding is key, not projection of your own invalid interpretations.

“Second: Can you name a single war were cities haven’t been bombarded if an enemy occupied them? ”

Habib, this is the most incriminating statement anyone can utter. You implicitly approved that a regime can bombard its own people. Name a leader in the history of the human race who massacred his own people and burned his own country…Neron may be..

I tell you again. Denying the crime ever happened despite a glaring evidence to the contrary is supporting the crime. There is no other interpretation. One can’t forge a YouTube of the shabeeha bludgeoning people to death or burning them alive, etc. I find it tiresome to list the atrocities already committed. Insisting that it did not happen would sure dismiss you as a non-valid partner to have a discussion with.

And you know what, there must be an acknowledgement and an apology from the Alawi community for the Syrian people to start thinking about forgiveness and that of course after justice getting served to those who have blood on their hands.

Of course it’s about survival, not privilege. The Alawis never forgot about all these centuries of discrimination and crimes committed by the Sunnis. Minorities reason like that, and never forget about their precarious status.

Especially not when a very large part of the rebellion is intent on restoring the “good old days”.

Stop your empty posturing. The coastal mountains will be conquered even before Damascus is liberated no later than next spring. I am planning to spend next summer on the coast with all the MB’s and so-called salafists. Like it or dislike it, you can do squat about it.

——————-

I am going to make every one of you here love-u-4ever retards regret the moment you started using the labels of salafist, jihadists, MBers and other such derogatory cheap labels.

I propose you read up on the Spanish and American civil wars. Or any other civil wars for that matter.

People kill their own in civil wars, that’s the very definition of it. It’s a mere fact, stating this has nothing to do with supporting it.

You can’t forget a video of a Shabiha bludgeoning someone, a regular Alawi can’t forget a video of a Salafist beheading someone. You see what I’m getting at? This victimisation on both sides doesn’t help a damn thing.

And “forgiveness” isn’t a criterion for anything, but a natural outcome of rapprochement.

17. Visitor

Nice. I hope you don’t smoke, because you’ll be about a hundred years old before that happens.

The Spanish civil war was a “war of liberation” against communists. We got Franco’s rule from it. I’m sure he thought he represented the “real” Spaniards against the evil, godless communists.

Please respect history a little.

“We were humiliated for 40 years.”

Alawites would claim they were humiliated for hundreds of years. So again, quit the pathetic self-pity. It won’t get you nowhere. We need realist pragmatists to solve this conflict, not emotional zealots.

Since this phase of our revolution demands joining our efforts and sticking together to reach our goal in removing this regime; and since we believe in the integrity of the new team selected to lead this coalition; and since we trust their sincerity to …our people’s cause, we declare our support and the support of the people with us and the support of the sufi stream to this new body though we are not represented in it we were not invited to join it. We encourage our brothers in the uprising as well as in the media to give the support it needs to sail the ship of our revolution to the safe shores.

We hope that the leaders of this coalition bear up the responsibility with trustworthiness and truthfulness and show prove to be up to this great task both inside Syria and on an international level.

We pray that Allah almighty guide so that they they distinguish right from wrong; and we pray that Allah show mercy to our martyrs.

Spain was a democracy and then came Franco Coup d’ Etat with his moorish guard, the church and the right wing to avoid the rule of socialist, communsits and anarchists who were the overwhelming majority of the population in Spain.

Anyway, anyone who deludes himself by thinking the insurgents will win in months, and that the fall of the regime, or even the expulsion of the Alawites, is imminent, has completely lost touch with reality as well as history.

The nationalist Maronite factions in Lebanon fought leftist Lebanese, Shia Lebanese, Sunni Lebanese, Palestinians, Syrians, other Christian groups, etc., and the fighting lasted for fiteen years, and those factions are still there. They’re weaker, for sure, but they sure as hell haven’t apologised, and they sure as hell aren’t going anywhere soon.

Take that into account and look at Syria. The Maronites were mainly weakened by their exodus and internal divisions, they had plenty of countries to escape to, and they did. The Alawites don’t have anywhere else to go, they’re not internally divided, so they will never stop fighting. Syria is basically their Israel.

This war will take 30 years minimum, and the outcome will not be a win to either side.

When we say “We were humiliated for 40 years” … you read
“We the sunna and christians were humiliated for 40 years by the alawites” but what we really mean is:

“We, the people of Syria (all religions, all origins) were humiliated by the regime in power for 40 years”.

Forget your religion, stop acting like an alawite, and think as a syrian, then you will find easier to understand the world you live in. At the end the sectarian satanic vision through which the alawites built the nation will come back to them as a boomerang.

Keep dreaming Habib. Your Alawites do not even compare to a subset of the Christians in terms of numbers when you compare the two countries – Syria & Lebanon – populations.

What are you? 3 maximum 5%. Christians in Lebanon were and still are close to 40-50% despite their immigration. And here’s another fantasy of yours which is begging for demolishing. The Maronite diaspora is a source of strength and immense support financially, politically and morally that ensures the survival of those Maronites residing in Lebanon..

Your Alawites will crawl down on their knees not only begging for forgiveness but will accept any bone thrown at them once your grand thug gets hunted down.

No change to my plans for a long summer stay next summer On the coast with all the MB’s, so-called jihadists and salafists.

Lol, Syria had barely 20 years of independence until the Ba’ath took power, and I dare you to point out any major differences between Syria after 1970 and before which weren’t improvements.

If we go back to Ottoman times, I’m sure you know the story. As for sectarianism, “the people of Syria” in your quote certainly doesn’t even account for half of the population. So try again.

30. Visitor

Some numbers for you. Even at the time of the Lebanese civil war, Christians overall were less than 40%. Maronites were maybe 30%.

Most non-Maronite Christians remained either neutral or actually fought against the Maronites in secular groups (pan Arabist, communist, pan Syrian). Then there were also even Maronites who joined secular groups.

And more importantly, you had inter-Maronite massacres, which lead to Maronite groups leaving the nationalist alliance.

So what did you have? Maybe 10% of Christians fighting the rest? By coincidence, that would be very close to the number of Alawites in Syria. And there you should also add all the Sunnis and Christians who are pro-government.

You don’t stand a chance, negotiate or die. That’s reality. Yes, you can import as many foreign fighters as you want to replace the few actual Syrians you have fighting for your, but that will only protract the war.

If you’re curious about the party’s manifesto and driving force, start with ALDENDESHE’S post above (#12), and if you want really want to get into it, go back to the last thread and look at his posts #441-446.

It can be frustrating. All the hard work it takes to inform people of the reality of the situation and all it may take is a little detail like this to undo it amongst certain circles or forums (Conspiracy theory types and others ready to to allow their suspicions to be reinforced.)

At the end of Star Wars episode 5 Count Dooku’s ship transforms into the shape of eye briefly too.

I can easily dig the proper statistics and show you that you are way off by factor of four at least on all counts.

But that’s besides the point. We know for sure that when Lebanon was formed it was designed by its creators to give the Christian population slight edge in terms of numbers.

We also know or sure from not very far away history that the Christians and not just the Maronites were in the same psych as your Alawites thinking they were fighting an existential war. You know Zahle, of course? Then you should know it is not Maronite. Zahle never fought with its surrounding muslim population. So, that demolishes your made up theory about Christians joining the Muslims against their fellow Christians, not to mention the well known facts that Christian and Muslim areas were squarely and clearly delineated throughout the war. I am not going to bother digging corroborating sources. They are well documented for you to find them if you are interested.

And pray tell me. What Sunni support does your thug enjoy in Syria? It is nothing but a mirage that will disappear the moment your grand thug is hunted down. You really think the Sunnis who you think now support your Alawite sectarian state will beg you to continue the last 50 years of despotism?

You must be out of your mind.

And now let’s have a look at the Syrian Christians. Hopefully they will see the light, and I am sure they will. But worse come to worse. You and them how much you account for?

It is not the Christians of Lebanon that were in exodus mode since you know when? Let’s put a date, say 1963. Does that mean anything to you?

Here is the point. The Christian population of Lebanon was more or less stable during this period. It is the Christians of Syria that were in exodus mode since your thugs took over. To the bad fortunes of the Christians, they were intimidated to believe in your false narrative of a despotic regime protecting them but in fact causing their demise and expulsion from their ancestoral homeland. Where are they now and how much is left of them, thanks to your protection?

You go again and dig up the statistics and we will verify it for it. But do not try to inflate them as is your habit of cooking up numbers to suite your purpose. Because you will be busted immediately.

Habib, don’t bother. In his radical dreams of violent retribution, genocide, ethnic cleansing for Syria he forgets other kinds of calamities that he would surely unleash on himself, beyond immensely higher casualties, large clouds of nerve gas for example.

You know that practicality and realism rarely get in the way of religious fanaticism like that.

Is it true in Saudi Arabia you need a permission from your guarantor “kafeel” to travel from your residence to another city within Saudi?!! I know this sounds insane. Is this the sort of reform and freedom that MB and Jihadists are planning to implement in Syria?

Now let’s see how your followers “brothers in faith” will jump to support you, you funny online Jihadists.

I’m perfectly calm, Visitor. You’re the one who is very close to a Nazi, by the way “The coastal mountains will be conquered even before Damascus is liberated no later than next spring. I am planning to spend next summer on the coast with all the MB’s and so-called salafists. Like it or dislike it, you can do squat about it.”

The regime and its supporters are in denial. Habib is a good example of it. All indications over the last 12 months show that the regime is losing militarily. They may yet last a long time, but the trend is unmistakable.

Consider:

1. In March/April, the regime launched a major offensive in Idlib that pushed the rebels to the Turkish border. Today, 90% of Idlib is under rebel control. Regime soldiers are fleeing into the Turkish border to surrender to the Turks (they don’t want to surrender to the FSA for good reason).

2. In March/April, the regime controlled all of its border crossings. Today, the regime has lost almost all of its border crossings with Turkey, and lost several on its border with Iraq.

3. In March/April the regime had full control of Aleppo and Damascus. Today, both cities are in the middle of the war.

4. In March/April the Jordanians were still neutral. Now they have firmly thrown in their lot with the rebels. What this means for the FSA is that they have a supply line in the South. Militarily this means they can maintain their offensive onto Damascus, with the effects that we’re seeing now.

5. With each passing month, the regime is losing more and more money. The currency is becoming more and more devalued. More and more businesses are closing, and more people are losing their jobs. Besides a military crisis, the regime is also facing an economic crisis.

It may be a while before it falls, but the regime is most definitely losing.

Money isn’t the problem. What you’re describing, is the fragmentation of the country and the loss of central power, if the trend continues. Turkey, with assistance from others, is responsible for most rebel advances.

When the situation lasts, I don’t think you’ll find that it is a good outcome for you or anyone else.

But it is a BETTER outcome than before. And it’s a BETTER outcome than if the regime wins.

And that’s why the regime will lose. It’s impossible for anyone to imagine how the future could be any worse than the present. The regime has nothing to offer for the future. So the rebels will continue to fight.

He’ll leave office one day, but that’s not the equivalent of removing the regime.
Most western countries have expressed their will to keep the state, actually. What’s your take on that, MG?

46

When the state disappears, we risk anarchy. Soaring criminality, warlords. This isn’t an improvement, even to you. In fact I’m sure that under your scenario some foreign power would step in, or a force sent by the UN. No one can afford a completely chaotic Syria.

For the purposes of vengeance, more people should be punished than Assad. BUT never-ending vengeance is stupid and leads to needless destruction. Besides, the FSA has committed atrocities too. If everyone got justice for what they’ve done, I think a quarter the population of Syria would die.

However, Assad must go. The longer he stays in power, the more likely warlords and anarchy will take over. There will be no national reconciliation with him. There will be no dialogue with the regime as long as Assad is in power. Even after he leaves, it will be a long time before Syria will be at peace.

BUT he must first leave to start the process to peace. As long as he stays in power, the war continues.

So finally another deformed creature has come to life, “National Coalition for Revolutionary Forces and the Syrian Opposition”!! honestly do they think this is a catchy name? with all $$ spent on hotels and rubbish couldn’t they spare some to a decent marketing firm to come up with something more practical with good impression?!!

Cyprus is moving forward with a venture to lay a natural gas pipeline from Israel and Cyprus to Europe. The Cypriot Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism has submitted the plan, called the Trans-Med Pipeline, to the European Commission. Cyprus has asked for the plan to receive projects of common interest (PCI) status, which would make it eligible for EU funding.
However, Cyprus’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis believes that gas exports will ultimately be carried out through the liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, rather than by an undersea pipeline.
_________________________________________________________________

They scrapped the Med-pipeline, for cheap land based Syria ones. They could not fund the undersea pipe, and found out that Qatari-Israeli land base pipe through Syria is far cheaper. It will never happen. EVER. But funny how they got a Jew hidding behind Islam, the way the House of Saadeen in Arabia hid to be next leader of Syria. It is funnier that this disrespected dude is Geologist who worked at Syria oil company. 40,000 Syrians and Syria is in ruine today, all because they Qatar-Israel-Turkey-Jordan wants the land based gas pipeline to Europe either through puppet state or Lebanon-Alawi Sate route to Cayan, Turkey. The money spent on the fake mercenaries to act up as ligit Syria opposition is infatisemal compare the cost of undersea pipeline.

This revolution claims “Freedom” of all sorts, I respect and support that unconditionally. However, why are you stripping minorities of their right of expression?!! Minorities decided to either stay on the side or support Assad, it’s their decision and you MUST respect that and stop blaming them for not taking the side of Sunnis, otherwise the least we could describe this revolution with is “confusion” and “double standards”.

“Syrian President Bashar Al Assad said his future could only be decided through the ballot box” *

I agree! When he’s stepped down and a transitional government has started stabilizing and rebuilding Syria to the stage where free and fair elections can be held.

Then let Bashar stand as a candidate against other candidates on a level playing field. With election funding transparency, governance rules for political parties, national TV debates, close monitoring of voting results – the works.

If he’s to stand a chance of even making first base for party nomination, he’ll have to first get acquittal on war crimes charges, grow a proper mustache and get voice therapy to stop the squeaking.

Yeah, I like it – the ballot box is definitely the fairest and soundest way to decide Bashar Assad’s future.

Apologies for making you uncomfy, I’ll try my best to change my tone so nobody would feel that that I’m lecturing or patronizing around here.

I hope this is a good ground to proceed. If so, could you please tell me your opinion of the new opposition entity? do you have some faith in its leaders? Do you think it’ll open the gates of heavens and weapons to fighters on ground? finally, do you think it’ll cut the supply on Jihadists fighting groups in Syria?

I know better than to try to interrupt your flow or respond, but wouldn’t the “LNG” facility” be an export facility so the gas can be shipped instead of put through an undersea pipeline? Overland pipelines don’t come into it for Cyprus.

Battle in Syria – is NOT about Syria or for Syrians!! It is a classic oil and Gas interests war in the Middle East, all with fake oppositions, fake conflict, fake media and all to legitimize and sanitize the death and destruction, war crimes and genocides committed in pursuit of those oil and gas interests where fortunes can be made. For decades Israel was the obstacle for Middle East oil & gas transport. Today, Israel is gas producer in need of delivery route; Syria is the obstacle in the way when it was in the 50’s the secure pipelines route to many countries.

For example, Jihadists and other fighting groups keep attacking villages and towns which decided not to take a side and force them to be allies with them. I find this act quite similar to Assad’s herds of Shabeeha trying to force the nation to chant “Assad for ever”

Well, since you are under probation, you need to become aware of certain mishaps you may fall into either knowingly (which is very bad) or unknowingly (bad enough to deprive you of credits eventually causing your failure).

The use of the term ‘entity’ to describe the newly formed coalition is derogatory. You will lose credit for that mishap as a grace of a first time mishap.

Secondly your continued use of the term jihadists will cost you a warning and a correction as usual. These are our brothers in faith and are always welcome before the revolution took place, during its progression, and after its eventual triumph.

Now, I will answer your questions with all sincerity and with no sarcasm whatsoever

Yes I have faith in the new body formed in our brotherly country of Qatar. But most importantly I like the platform which they declared will be their guide. At this point it is only appropriate that we must send greetings to our great friend of Syria, Sheikh Hamad.

الله محيي الشيخ حمد

Secondly, yes weapons will start flowing at a faster rate than they already have been which means the quantity and the quality will be both multiplied.

I think I already answered your last inquiry about our brothers in faith as well as in the revolution.

Thanks Visitor, I appreciate your answers. You do sound like you’re quite comfy with your fundamentalist skin and brain, I respect that while I totally disagree with the concept of fanatics and fundamentalists.

Thanks for your feedback but I guess I’ll stick to my stand against Jihadists and deformed opposition entities for now.

Will you drop your weapon and engage in a dialog if you were guaranteed a solid positive outcome to your cause?

If the current new opposition leadership prevails and becomes part of a transitional government, Syrians could be in for the best and most constructive dialogue of their lives.

Khatib and his team would recognize that a substantial number of Syrians are neither with Bashar or the rebellion, just shocked and in stunned fear of the future.

Those are the people who need to be addressed, consulted and reassured.

And I think those guys have a better chance of doing that than anyone to date, based on what is known about them, their personal attributes and their vision for a non-sectarian Syria.

They are all also very good at public speaking and saying real things that get through to people.

Plus all of them have real-life experience and normal backgrounds, and would not have succeeded in getting where they are now without patiently earning the consent, respect and support of others, without using a gun.

Despite your lack of reasoning as well as your obvious need to rational thinking, and despite the fact that your presumptuous negotiating stunt reflects your own personal initiative and nothing more, here is a counter proposal, for argument sake:

Would you accept putting thug Assad and his entourage of thugs on trial in Syria, dismantle all the security apparati, dissolve the Ba’ath party, and merge the regular Syrian Arab Army with the FSA under FSA command?

You didn’t answer my direct simple question, alternatively you decided to adopt Tala’s skills of countering back with another series of questions shifting the balance of the conversations and taking the topic somewhere else.

I take your behavior as you don’t have the guts to disturb your online brothers in faith by accepting to sit around the table to negotiate with an open mind possible solutions, although you do have solid guarantees of what you want. Why the hesitance Visitor?

However, I’ll answer your questions because I find them quite well cherry picked.

Would you accept:
1. putting thug Assad and his entourage of thugs on trial in Syria?
Yes/No, Assad should be put to international justice instead to opposition/Jihadists justice. I’m happy to refer his case to ICC

2. dismantle all the security apparatus?
This not not practical and a stark sign of the prematurity of opposition’s mind. How will you run a state with no security in place? unless you’re expecting your Jihadi brothers to play the judge and executioner in post Syria. I’d say the solution is by reforming and restructuring security apparatus.

3. dissolve the Ba’ath party?
No, this fall under the right of expression and I’m an advocate of everyone is entitled to their own opinion. However, Ba’ath members should not be treated with any special privileges.

4. merge the regular Syrian Arab Army with the FSA under FSA?
command?
If you mean the defectors by FSA then the answer is YES, I agree these army personals should be reunited with their mother organization but with no special privileges or upper hand, an amnesty decree will be needed to sort out their situation. However, if you mean all fighters and Jihasists by FSA then the answer is No.

Now let’s try again, Will you drop your weapon and engage in a dialog if you were guaranteed a solid positive outcome to your cause?

One option is for Israel to export natural gas via a new overland pipeline traversing Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and/or Iraq before passing through Turkey to access the European pipeline in Bulgaria and Greece. It is unlikely however that Israel will accept the political risk of transporting its natural gas through those Middle Eastern neighbors.

Another possibility being considered is an undersea pipeline. In August the Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, visited Athens and reportedly suggested building a pipeline between Israel’s offshore fields and the Greek mainland. Such a pipeline would be the most challenging project of its type ever attempted. It would be the world’s deepest undersea natural gas pipeline with long stretches at depths of 2,000 meters over rugged terrain and the Eastern Mediterranean Ridge. Covering 1,040 kms from Leviathan to the access point near Athens, the pipeline would match the length of the world’s longest undersea pipeline (or exceed it by 200 kms if the pipeline is routed to the access point in northern Greece).

_________________________________________________________________

Read More here: (SHOVE THAT FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY UP YOUR ASSES-THIS ARAB SPRING IS A WORSE HOAX THAN 9/11.)

U.S. intelligence believes that assailants connected to al Qaeda in Iraq were among the core group that attacked the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, a U.S. government official told CNN.

That would represent the second al Qaeda affiliate associated with the deadly September 11 attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

Previously, intelligence officials said there were signs of connections to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the North African wing of the terror group.

The revelation that members of al Qaeda in Iraq are suspected of involvement in the Libya attack comes at a time when there is a growing number of fighters from that group also taking part in the Syrian civil war.

You really disappoint me and I am serious. This time there is no sarcasm whatsoever. Every word that follows is sincere.

First you are a bad negotiator. I.would not put you in charge of any negotiations.

The answer to your direct question has already been answered since you first showed yourself here. Remember this?

“This conflict must be resolved in the field.”

That was my first interaction with you. Nothing changed since then, except of course the developments in Qatar. The battle will go on till all of Syria is liberated from you Alawite thugs. You can decide to join the battle or stay out of the revolution.

Second, My counter proposal was simply for the sake of argument and to test your sincerity. You have failed in both. But have no doubt that the war will go on. The security apparati will be dismantled. Assad thug and his entourage of thugs will be tried by the victims themselves right in the middle of Damascus. The Ba’ath party will be dissolved and banned forever just like nazism was banned after WWII. And the FSA will unify the overall command of all armed forces under its command. What kind of presumptuous pompous entity you think you are to present so-called guarantees to a useless outcome as your proposal. I didn’t even ask you about that. You should know now why, unless you’re absolutely dumb.

Hey, consider this. Syria has already been destroyed. We are not going to destroy it again ten twenty years from now by fooling ourselves of trying to rebuild it on false foundations. Nothing will go forward from now until all of the above are achieved. You can go to sleep on that.

Why is there no effort to recognize the shadow state the FSA leadership is building from the ground, by uniting armed groups and defected military units into a unified structure of command and coordination?

Why not work with the FSA to find an alternative to the MB?

Gen. Mustafa al-Sheikh, head of the Higher Military Council of the FSA has published a manifesto, according to the Daily Telegraph.

He wishes this Manifesto could provide the framework for the next Constitution, “demanding respect for Syria’s unity and for human rights, especially the rights of prisoners.”

Rather than build a new state apparatus from Istanbul and Qatar, why not build it from the infrastructure emerging on the ground?

It looks to me — again, I’m new to this, I don’t know much — as if the Muslim Brotherhood is trying to finance and weaponize alternative gangs, in an effort to give them military parity with the FSA.

This creates rivalry among fighters, rather than unity. And resentment among the FSA leadership and the heads of its various councils. Even warlords such as Abu Issa and Jamal Maarouf spoke against that. And many defected military men.

The FSA has done the bulk of the fighting on the ground so far, but it has remained largely outside the Syrian National Council, and from I gather of Facebook, it does not plan to integrate into the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces.

My question is not rhetorical. I genuinely don’t know and am interested in your views here.

Am I wrong in thinking that the Syrian National Initiative wants to impose from above an alternative structure of command to the one that is being installed by the FSA from the ground?

Why are they doing it if it is to sponsor the MB rather than the FSA?

And yes, I know FSA units made pragmatic alliances with evil outfits such al-nusra. But I don’t recognize this as damning. They’re doing it where they are massively out-gunned and the prey of massive aerial bombings.

Sorry, Georges Sabra’s melodramatic speech left me indifferent and unease.
He is certainly a better actor and writer than Ghaliun or his unbearable sister in law, but words and lyricism do not stop the bloodshed.
We need to see a practical plan other than the single plan the opposition has: “We are unifying only because we expect you to give us billions of dollars and better weapons. Otherwise we cannot topple Bashar Al Assad and we’ll loose the revolution.”
Will the West deliver? I have my doubts.

Qatar keeps hammering and repeating to the media that the AL has recognized the CNSROF as the ‘sole’ representative of the Syrian opposition. Yet, the AL league only said that the CNSROF is, like the SNC previously, a legitimate opposition group and a major representative of the Syrian opposition, but NOT the sole. It is certainly not the representative of the Syrian people.

Without the AL recognition, the chances it will be recognized as the sole representative of the Syrians internationally are null.

CAIRO – The Arab League welcomed on Monday the formation of a new Syrian opposition group, but stopped short of giving it full recognition as the representative of the Syrian people.

With some Arab states still reluctant to completely abandon Syrian President Bashar Assad, Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Cairo were unable to state clearly that the new Syrian National Coalition was the sole legitimate Syrian voice.

His speech should be taught as an example of Muslim-Christian coexistence. An antidote for all the hatred spewed by some Christians on SC. I was very close to feel hopeless about the positions of the Christians in the ME toward the Muslims (and I know I should not generalize). One can feel the sincerity, honesty, and love in his tone of vice and every muscle contraction in his face. No wonder why JL’ friend said the speech made him feel proud to be a Syrian Christian for the first time in a long time.

The widely-published AP report by Mohammed Daraghmeh on October 29th announced that Arabs were preparing to once again push for creating their 22nd state in the United Nations. It cannot be stated too often that this would be their second, not first, created in the original April 25, 1920 Mandate of Palestine. What is now Jordan sits on almost 80% of that territory since its creation in 1922. That Arabs claim that Jews were given all or most of the land is nothing short of a blatant lie.

Arabs are firm believers that everywhere their own prior (and continuing) imperial, colonial conquests took them after they burst out of the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century C.E. entitles Arabs to create states solely for themselves on all of those forcibly Arabized lands. In order to further this goal, the very languages and cultures of scores of millions of native, non-Arab, subjugated peoples in the region (those who were not slaughtered in the process, that is) have been suppressed and outlawed.

Coincidentally, on that very same date, a report by Shirzad Shikhani in Saudi Arabia’s Asharq al-Awsat stated that Iraq’s KRG president, Massoud Barzani, was informed that “alongside Turkey, the US will not support the proclamation of a Kurdish state.” The report made clear that this was the position–whether the Kurds wanted to come to the negotiating table over specific terms for independence or not. Mere mention of the Turks on this subject would be funny if not so tragic.

Ankara’s notorious subjugation of some twenty million of its own Kurds (renamed “Mountain Turks” to deny their distinct Kurdish identity)–who predate the invading Central Asian Turks in what’s now “Turkey” by millennia–matches the worst that Arabs have put into practice themselves, with the possible exception of Saddam’s genocidal Anfal Campaign. The latter took the lives of some 200,000 Kurds in Iraq in the 1980s–not to mention many others slaughtered by Arabs earlier in both Syria and Iraq or those dispatched by the Iranians as well.

It’s worth recalling that Iraq, which others now insist Kurds must remain a part of (no matter what the additional cost), is where Kurds were promised independence after World War I, when it was still known as the Mandate of Mesopotamia after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. They were subsequently shafted, however, after Great Britain received a favorable decision over the fate of the predominantly northern Kurdish area’s oil in the Mosul Decision handed down by the League of Nations in 1925. “Arab” Iraq was created in its place–a direct collusion between British petroleum politics and Arab nationalism. While one of the Hashemite Arab princes was being handed the lion’s share of Palestine renamed the Emirate of Transjordan, the other was being gifted all of Mesopotamia.

CAIRO, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) — The Arab League (AL) on Monday recognized the newly-formed Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces as the “representative of the aspirations of Syrian people,” said Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani after a meeting of Arab foreign ministers.

IAF aircraft strike two rocket launching sites in northern Gaza and a weapons storage site in central Gaza.

IAF aircraft conducted several airstrikes in Gaza on Monday night, hitting at least three targets.

According to a statement by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, the aircraft struck two rocket launching sites in northern Gaza and a weapons storage site in central Gaza. The attack, noted the statement, is a response to the continued rocket fire by Gaza-based terrorists into Israeli territory.

Direct hits were identified and all Israeli aircraft returned safely to their bases.

“The IDF will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli citizens and IDF soldiers and will continue to operate against anyone who uses terror against the State of Israel,” said the IDF statement, laying the blame for any Gaza terrorist attacks on its Hamas rulers.

Southern Israel’s residents continued to be targeted by rockets and missiles on Monday, as thousands of children had to spend the day in shelters and protected spaces.

Dear Habib,
It is astounding to read your take on the current situation in Syria. Some people look, but they definitely cannot see. It is even more amazing that you are connecting the Syrian regime to the Alawi community so strongly. There is no question that the Alawi community is an element of the Syrian regime, but most definitely is not its entirety. The Syrian regime has been described by many as a Mafia to the point where the Economist called the system in Syria a Thugocracy a few years ago. Why you would want to smear the entire Alawi community so terribly, is beyond me. For you to claim that the Alawi community does not really know the truth of what is going on, is even more amazing. Your argument stems from arrogance and detachment from reality and is almost identical to the regime’s position. This attitude is exactly what got us where we are today. It serves us all well to have some dose of humility.

From the previous thread I noticed a lot of new developments and ideas about the potential for a worse situation.

When I follow Ghufran’s noting that a worse outcome can happen, I do not endorse his apologetic stance with regard to the complete responsibility of the regime for this situation in my opinion.

Notice today that Malikiah has fallen fully in the hands of the Kurds and they stormed the local intelligence and army posts and in a new twist it was army officers who had to undergo searches by Kurdish fighters. The statutes of the father and the son were defaced to the cheers of the population and the tears of the women from this joyful event. The news was on the Daily Star web site today.

The new opposition coalition will give a working base for the creation of a new Syria.

It seems also that the responses from the previous thread clarified one point: the Alawi community has decided to fight to the death and they do not have a plan B and therefore they will suffer terribly in the new Syria.

This is why I do wish for them and for their safety to create a new state BUT they will have to fight to keep it and we may end up having another 100 year struggle.

Whether the international community will intervene on their behalf is another matter.

As to my opinion, I do not believe that ANY dialogue IS POSSIBLE WITH THIS REGIME.

I also do not believe that there is ANY POLITICAL SOLUTION TO THE CRISIS WHILE THE REGIME HOLDS THE HEAVY WEAPONS CARD.

YOU AND I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE THIS APPLE, I HAVE THE APPLE AND YOU HAVE THE KNIFE, YOU CAN CUT THE APPLE BUT I HAVE TO CHOOSE THE FIRST PIECE.

UNLESS there is such a balance of power and a minimum of trust then there can be no dialogue and if dialogue is to be had it will only be ON HOW TO DISMANTLE THE REGIME AND BRING THE CRIMINALS TO JUSTICE.

Just another finding I noted: the insult YA WALAD it is a typical Alawi insult but I am not sure what it means; can someone tell me: is it nigger? or boy as they did in the South to denote the slave status of niggers? Does it mean emotional and immature and innocent and therefore worthy of being abused and manipulated? Does it mean not capable of using force and soft and therefore not of the ilk of the superior Alawis?

Again, I am not insulting anyone here, just wondering

My observations of the recent developments:

1. The new coalition will give a nice cover for those that want to give more aid to the revolution notwithstanding the vetoes of the UN
2. The MB have been weakened and therefore there will be better distribution of military aid that used to favor the islamists.
3. This is the window through which the minority can join without losing face
4. This is the best way to force the pro regime allies to be put to their lie of wanting the best for the Syrian people while secretly trying to destroy the revolution like Iraq and ALgeria and HA.
5. Russia finds itself on the defensive asking for dialogue.
6. There is one dialogue now, that of force to fight the ferocity of this regime. Wow to those hardliners that want the regime to crush the opposition.
7. The regime will be uprooted from its most minute pieces and branches and for generations minorities may never have access to security or army positions.

Your weak attempt trying to stick that term to the Alawis is laughable. It shows a very RACIST side in you.

You are going crazy these days.

Your posts are حشو وتشطيح مع القليل من الردح, without real punch or meaning, except for the racist remarks here and there, which entertain me. Keep on trying dude. You make a fool of yourself, like your last post.

Contrary to your “observation” the only solution is political and it is possible.

Dear Observer,
It is very interesting to watch how in the beginning of the revolution when the balance of power was in favor of the regime by miles, regime supporters were imploring the regime to “sterilize” and “disinfect” the country from those who dared to raise their heads to face their “masters”. Today, however, that same group is begging for dialogue. As they watch the ship sinking their cries for dialogue get louder and louder.

2. The Sunnis must get power in any future government proportionate to their majority status. They make up about 70% of the country, so they should control at a minimum of half of the future government.

3. The president must be Sunni. The prime minister must be Alawite. The minister of defense must be Christian (similar to Lebanon).

4. Officers in the future Syrian army are to be 50% Sunni, 50% non-Sunni.

5. Russia keeps their naval base.

6. The Kurds will be an autonomous region, similar to the situation in North Iraq.

7. Weak central government, like Lebanon. It’ll be a mess, but it’s better than a dictatorship.

However, none of this is negotiable as long as Assad and his family is in power.

Well, the platform which they declared will abide by should remain their guide. That’s why I have faith in them not just because I liked Khatib.

As for this Ali Baba entity, he may have survived little longer this time but I did tell him right up front how and why he will succeed or fail. He chose to fail because he is fake and doesn’t belong in this revolution.

That’s score 2 to zero so far. I’m sure he’ll come back and ask you and me not to address him anymore blah blah blah trying to seek some greener pastures.

But nothing to worry about. All the revolution supporters here have become seasoned and understand well the deceptions of the likes of Ali Baba, Johny come latelies. Besides you should remember this which I’m sure Khatib is fully aware of:

Right now we are not at the stage of presenting proposals and counter proposals. We have our objectives and we keep focused on achieving those objectives with available means. As many have observed already, the balance of power has shifted dramatically in favor of the revolution since it started some twenty months ago.

For now the war will continue and the FSA will continue to advance, get more weapons, training and more recruits from the defecting soldiers as well as the civilian population. We as expatriates must continue to support it with all means available to us. That is the least we can do.

When the time comes for proposals, then you should become aware of what we say in Arabic:

لكل حادث حديث
If you do not know Arabic, let me know and I will try to convey the meaning.

With all honesty, I see your anger towards the Alawis grow by the day.

A while back, you were trying to pretend that you are progressive and for the rights of minorities, but with time I see that you are increasing the dose of hatred, especially against the Alawis.

Granted that you hate me, but it is obvious that you are going postal regarding the Alawis in general, and me in particular.

If you are pissed as some poster on this blog, you try to bring me to that person. What is your story dude?

Dude, I see that you are behaving in an immature manner, in Syrian : عم تتولدن

For real, if I introduced your labels and adjectives, coupled with your phrases regarding the Alawis to a neutral group they would see clearly that you are RACIST. Plain and simple. There are samples of your writings on this blog.

أكد عضو “المنبر الديمقراطي” المعارض السوري ميشال كيلو أن موقفه من تشكيل “الائتلاف الوطني لقوى الثورة والمعارضة السورية” الذي أُعلن عنه من الدوحة يرتبط “بما سيفعله (هذا الائتلاف) ونحن ننتظر وسنبني موقفنا على النتائج التي تترتب على ذلك، وليس المهم التنظيمات وإنما الأفعال”.
ولفت كيلو في حديث صحافي الى أن الاجتماعات التي أجراها المجلس الوطني السوري الأسبوع الماضي “لا علاقة لنا بها لسنا جزءاً منها، نحن ديمقراطيون، والمجلس إسلامي، نحن مستقلون والمجلس تابع لدول أجنبية تموّله وتسهر على استمراره بعدما شكّلته. ونعتقد على كل حال أن المجلس يلهو في القضية السورية ويراهن على خراب البلد، وهو جزء من هذا الخراب”.
Kilo also looked optimistic about the threat of the collapse of the Syrian army and the somalization of syria saying that regional and international powers do not want another Somalia in Syria.
( I am not sure I agree with kilo, Syria is quickly becoming a haven for thugs and criminals)
What you see is a political circus,that is why I broadcasted my Tozz and my big yawn, I indeed have respect for a number of people who signed the accord but I think that they hurt their cause by going to Qatar. The real fight is on the ground and so far the rebels have not captured any major Syrian city, they are still trying to “liberate” Aleppo and have not managed to keep their bases around Damascus, even in Idleb, rebels are now fighting to save Muarrat Alnumaan, I am not celebrating the rebels lack of progress or the regime’s resistance but I find it necessary to separate facts from fiction since many of you seem to be trapped in a fantasy that may never materialize: winning this conflict militarily. I challenge thawrajiyyeh to prove to us, the confused and the “less informed” , that the rebels have more support among Syrians today compared to 4 months ago when angry thugs decided to destroy Aleppo. Syria is being destroyed while you guys are arguing about who should sit at the front in a future imaginary car that may never be built.

They allow terrorists to go to Syria but they arrest them if they come back:

Police investigating individuals travelling to Syria in support of alleged terrorist activity have arrested a man at Heathrow airport following his arrival on a flight from Bahrain.
The 24-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, Scotland Yard said.
Officers from the Metropolitan police’s counter-terrorism command detained him at 8.45am on Monday after he was stopped by immigration officials 45 minutes earlier.
“Today’s arrest forms part of an investigation into travel to Syria in support of alleged terrorist activity,” said a police spokesman.
Another man, Shajul Islam, was charged on 16 October in connection with the same investigation following his arrest at Heathrow last month. The 26-year old trainee NHS doctor was charged with the kidnap of a British journalist and a Dutch colleague in Syria.

“Is it true in Saudi Arabia you need a permission from your guarantor “kafeel” to travel from your residence to another city within Saudi”

LOL! Your information is 15 years old. I’ve never needed anyone’s permission to travel from one Saudi city to another. You are so pathetic 🙂

And Aldendeshe, I’d sooner have a Jew be president of Syria than a Alawite. Not even a Mossad mole like Eli Cohen could have messed up Syria as badly as your beloved Batta has done. The Palestinians should be grateful they are facing an opponent as moral as Israel. Batta would have gassed them with Scud missiles from day one.

“A bronze stature of the late Hafez Assad was defaced and elated residents and armed gunmen tore down and painted over images of President Bashar Assad and his father Hafez”

Aaaahahahaha! Ahahahahaah! Yeah, Batta is sooooo “loved” by his people. In every town and village, Syrians can’t wait to tear down pictures of his perverted family.

“When the state disappears, we risk anarchy”

Since you haven’t been to Syria, and are as clueless about it as you’ve shown yourself to be about the GCC, then this will come as a shock to you; what we have right now isn’t much better than anarchy. Your beloved Batta has totally failed to reimpose the writ of the state on any part of the country. For that reason alone, war-crime enablers like you should have turned on him. But you people are fanatics. Like Spammy Annie once said when Makhlouf’s Cyprus nationality was revoked, you people would support him even if he had Israeli citizenship.

“Turkey, with assistance from others, is responsible for most rebel advances.”

One more weary time you comment on things you have no idea about, just to hear yourself talk.

Erdogan was all set on withdrawing from the entire mess. The FSA was forced to move its HQ out of the country, refugees had been barred entry, and the opposition’s network in the south of Turkey was dismantled. And what did your idiotic Batta do then? He shelled the Turks, drawing them back in *sarcastic clapping*

“Ethnic cleansing, glorification of violence, very Nazi of you.”

Said the naughty little hypocrite glorifying in the rise of right-wing European extremists. We’ve seen your true colors; a neo-Nazi know it all who apparently knows very little of “it”.

“You know that practicality and realism rarely get in the way of religious fanaticism like that.”

Religious fanaticism, you disgusting little neo-Nazi? And why would Iran and Hizbollah support the squeaky voiced Alawite thug Batta, except out of narrow sectarian concerns? Tehran is a theocracy, something you overlook in your talk of “Jihadists”. Hizbollah is the world’s biggest exporter of terrorism. And you people are worried about a few hundred Libyans or Saudis? Better Qatar’s support than being allied with the Ayatollahs.

And how much more fanatic can you get than “Assad or we burn the country”, or murdering people for not saying that Assad is God. Fanaticism you ill informed “playing-at-world-politics” amateur?

Haha, “you need permission to travel from one Saudi city to another”…hahaha, if this is the kind of information that you rely on to debate, then we know exactly how little weight to give your (already imbecilic) statements and predictions. Now go argue with Mjabali about whose fatwa is bigger 🙂

“With all honesty, I see your anger towards the Alawis grow by the day. ”

Gosh, how can I put this. If a certain sect have a propensity for rape, child murder, abductions, torture, etc, then yeah, expect to be hated, and with good justification. You people earned it many times over. Just as the Germans were loathed throughout Europe for years after WW 2, there is now a certain stigma associated with being a Qurdahan.

Heck, not even your formerly enthusiastic “anti-Imperial” Leftists can even be bothered to defend you people. All I hear from that camp are “Yes, Assad is bad and is a juddering psycopath, but we don’t want the unknoooooown! We are scared of the unknooooooooown!”. The change in the Left’s tone really doesn’t bode well for you people.

But anyway, may allow a few of you to eek out a living in Saudi, where apparently you “need permission to travel from one city to another” LOOOOOL! That hasn’t been the case in a decade and a half, imbeciles 🙂

” However, why are you stripping minorities of their right of expression?!!”

Blah blah blah minorities blah blah. Ask the families of Basil Shehade or Meshaal Tammo how much protection being a minority affords one when they work against the regime. Or were they Salafi Jihadists on the Qatari payroll?

Basil Shehade’s funeral was disrupted by your beloved shabiha, and some funeral goers arrested. A disgusting incident that the neo-Nazi regime supporters are desperate not to have anyone bring up.

And judging from the celebrations by the Kurds, I’m guessing that’s one minority that wants nothing to do with your “secular” tyranny.

“That supposes that the opposition leadership effectively controls what’s happening on the ground, which has been very far from being the case.”

Yeah, then explain how even the ICG and every reporter in Syria who isn’t on an Iranian or Russian payroll has confirmed that not one mass massacre of regime supporters occurred anywhere in the country over the past 20 months? Show me the revolution equivalent of Duraya or Houla? Or are you people still denying that the shabiha massacred civilians there just like you deny the Holocaust?

I remember a particularly disgusting menhebakji on this very forum, saying that the issue of “Douraya” was over. What he meant of course, was that Batta got away with it, and not that the “terrorists” were caught. That’s a mentality all too common among the regime’s enablers.

The wonderful thing about Saudi Arabia is that it has welcomed people of all religions to come and work, and sometimes spend decades there, raising their families, sending them off to college. And guess where 90% of those children choose to work? That’s right, back in the same places as their parents. Syrians have been working in the Gulf for several generations now. Doesn’t say much about the so called paradise your Batta failed to build in Syria.

The Survivor
Barack Obama called for Syrian’s Bashar al-Assad to step aside more than a year ago. Here’s why he’s still in power.
BY RANDA SLIM

Dieser Artikel ist auf Deutsch vorhanden BETA

What’s This?

ARGUMENT PRINT | TEXT SIZE Share on email | EMAIL | SINGLE PAGE
The Survivor
Barack Obama called for Syrian’s Bashar al-Assad to step aside more than a year ago. Here’s why he’s still in power.
BY RANDA SLIM | NOVEMBER 12, 2012

On Aug. 18, 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama released a written statement that declared: “For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside.” It was his first explicit call for the Syrian leader to resign — but today, 452 days later, Bashar al-Assad is still in power. As he told Russian TV last week, “I am Syrian; I was made in Syria. I have to live in Syria and die in Syria.”

“This week has enabled the Free Syrian Army, launch missiles in the direction of the presidential palace. A friend of mine, a commander in the FSA, told me they would check before the end of the presidential palace. If that’s true, yes, because it can actually might do this alone. But as long as Assad controls the airspace and terrorizing the population with bombs, it remains difficult.”

In his statement posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry website on Monday, the diplomat stresses that the future of Syria should not depend on those who stake on the use of force and terrorism.

An ultimatum of the so-called Military Council of the Free Syrian Army of Damascus and Its Environs was circulated on Sunday. It demands that all foreign diplomatic missions and the staff of foreign companies should leave Syria within 72 hours.

In addition, a spokesman of the council declared that Russia would be considered a hostile country unless it revised its position on the Syrian problem.

The Syrian troops have restored control over the Damascus-Aleppo highway in the area of the town of Maarat-Naaman following bitter fighting with the rebels of the Jebhat an-Nousra extremist group.

A source in the Syrian Defence Ministry has refuted reports by Arab TV channels that the Khandarat Air Defence base, in the environs of Aleppo, has allegedly been captured.

The source confirmed that the area of the missile battalion deployment had indeed come under attack, but the Syrian military shattered the assault and imposed losses on the terrorists in personnel and equipment.

Syrian Air Force planes attacked the Islamists’ outposts in the city of Ras al-Ayn, near the Turkish border, killing at least seven rebel fighters.

“The world should bear the responsibility toward this crisis,” Hussain said, adding that the international decision makers should “stop lying about how helpless they are because they are the ones that are aggravating the crisis”

DAMASCUS, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) — A prominent Syrian opposition figure expressed his rejection to the unity agreement concluded among the exiled opposition groups, saying it will further complicate the situation on the ground instead of solving it.

“I don’t think this coalition will last for long and it won’t be conducive to solve the Syrian crisis,” Luai Hussain, head of the opposition Building Syria State Party, said Monday during an interview with Xinhua.

Syria’s exiled opposition groups signed a formal agreement in the Qatari capital of Doha on Sunday to form a new coalition called the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces, in the hope of having a unified entity to face the administration of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Hussain said the agreement would further complicate the Syrian crisis because “it is trying to create a new pole to confront the regime not to confront all the challenges the country is facing.”

The new coalition will be mainly composed of opposition groups outside Syria and activists from inside the country as well as some rebel commanders, reports said.

Once the new coalition earns international approval, its members will form an interim government in exile and call for a national conference once the Syrian current administration is ousted, according to the agreement.

Hussain, however, said “a government in exile is an encroachment upon Syrians’ rights to determine their destiny and choose their leadership…”

“We reject any government in exile as we also reject the Syrian government, which are against our will,” Hussain stated, regarding the formation of an exiled government as “handing the country over to big capitals in return of ousting the current regime.”

He said his party will work to stir the Syrian public opinion to reject such a move and will also work to explain to many countries that forming an interim government in exile is “an aggression against our rights.”

He said the key for solving Syria’s 20-month-old crisis is the start of an international consensus because the international communities “should reach a consensus in order to have a cessation of violence to pave the way for unleashing a political process.”

Hussain said that his party is now having a new project under the slogan of “No to solving the Syrian crisis violently,” which aims to practice pressure on the decision makers worldwide with the help of some international NGOs to find peaceful means to solve the conflict.

Difference between USA and KSA? In the USA, the women around Petraeus are named and their picture on every frontpage; in KSA, a famous cleric ho has tortured his daughter to death is not even named, be it by his wife or by the media. Fear of clanic revenge?
You can’t get a democracy when the society is based on clans.http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/11/11/249009.html

Syrian exile: ‘My mother is dead. And it was my father who killed her’

When Loubna Mrie joined the revolution, she incurred the wrath of her father, an Assad loyalist
When revolution first came to Syria, Loubna Mrie decided she would break new ground to help it succeed.

Deeply affected by the images of dead protesters across the country, the 21-year-old Alawite – the daughter of a leader of the regime’s thuggish Shabiha militia and member of Syria’s most privileged minority – left her home in the regime heartland of Latak

The United Kingdom intends to initiate talks with armed gangs who are fighting to overthrow the Syrian President, Bashar al-Asad, and provide advice. David Cameron, in what is a clear intervention in the Syrian crisis, gave the green light to British officials to advise the commanders of armed gangs.

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, in what is a clear intervention in the Syrian crisis, gave the green light to British officials to advise the commanders of armed gangs who are fighting against the forces of the government of Damascus this fall.

The authorities indicate that the talks are designed to help the armed Syrian opposition to bring together an army in order to forcibly change the government.

However, Cameron, in a clear signal that he would like to go further, said in an interview with the Daily Mail newspaper, that he is frustrated by the embargo of the European Union (EU) on the shipment of arms to Syria, as the United Kingdom participated as an onlooker.

“We must ask ourselves what more can we do to help the opposition”, he declared, and also added that currently they do not supply weapons to Syrian insurgents.

The British Prime Minister, who is touring countries in the Middle East, is scheduled to visit a refugee camp on the border of Jordan with Syria, where the announcement that the United Kingdom will deliver 14.5 million pounds (18 million euros) of humanitarian aid to the agencies of the United Nations (UN) is expected Wednesday.

The talks with the heads of the armed gangs that put the United Kingdom one step from military intervention in the Arab country, will be announced this Wednesday to the British Parliament by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, William Hague. John Wilks, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Special Envoy of Cameron in his contacts with the Syrian opposition, will be in charge.

Interference by some western and regional countries that openly provide financial, arms and logistical support to opponents, have aggravated the situation in the Arab country.

I’d never seen a more euphoric attitude on Facebook and Twitter since the start of the revolution than I did yesterday evening. Muataz al Khatib, a former imam of the Ummayad mosque, is an articulate and skilled orator. His manner reminds me of that almost lost form of Islam that was the tradition in much of Syria, in a way he reminds me of my late grandfather. But will he have what it takes to overcome the difficulties of a divided and argumentative opposition? I don’t know what the next few days will bring, but I’ve learnt enough over the past eighteen months not to build my hopes up. The road to toppling Assad is going to be long, difficult and very bloody. The fact is many more people will, sadly, lose their lives before the dictator of Damascus finally falls. One thing that struck me was his conciliatory attitude to the Syrian regular army. He referred to its members as just as much victims of the regime as the people they were attacking. It was a good move and could help foster a more encouraging atmosphere for defections. He’s also climbing down from denouncing the army, and I suspect this is because much of it will be kept intact for the sake of stability and security.

Assad’s Russia Today Interview

I listened to the interview in full today and the only impression I got was of a man desperate for somebody to listen to his lies. More talk of armed gangs, Western conspiracies, terrorists, the battle between secularism and Islamism, and a stern warning that an attack on Syria will unleash problems from the Atlantic to Afghanistan. There were no jokes, however, and he did not laugh much. There were also no “hidden” messages that he seemed to be passing out to the West, no subtle hints at all which is unusual because the regime loves these things. If he did use them I didn’t notice them. He signalled a willingness to “discuss” with countries such as the Gulf, but on the condition that they stop “arming and funding” the armed groups, as he called them. This man isn’t planning to go anywhere. Interestingly, the interviewer, Sophie Shevardnadze, hinted that the presidential palace they were in was newly refurbished. I don’t know whether she meant anything more than what she said. Assad very clearly replied that she was “most welcome in Damascus” and this was to tell everybody that he was still in the capital. There were rumours that he might be in Lattakia. The conclusion of the interview was clear, he plans to live and die in Syria. I felt as if this was a man who wanted to show that he was still relevant and perhaps galvanize his followers by making an appearance.

Israel

They are watching events in Syria closely. The recent incidents at the border seem to me an attempt by somebody to draw Israel into the conflict, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. It would be remarkably stupid if Tel Aviv decided on another adventure and would play right into the hands of Hezbullah, Iran and Assad. For Assad it would be a godsend as it would fatally undermine the revolution against him. Ultimately I don’t think anybody, apart from Assad, wants a war right now.

Britain training rebels to assassinate Syrian president: reporthttp://refreshingnews99.blogspot.in/2012/11/britain-training-rebels-to-assassinate.html
As British Prime Minister David Cameron prepares to use the Royal Air Force (RAF) in Syria to put an end to the massacres the Syrian regime is committing throughout the country, British Special Forces are training rebels to assassinate the Syrian president and his commanders, the London Daily Star reported.

UK government sources told the newspaper that British assassination squads are in Syria to train rebels on how to target President Bashar al-Assad and his warlords. Some troops hailing from Britain Special Air Service (SAS), Special Boat Section (SBS) and the Airborne Infantry of the British Army (Paras) are also in the country to teach Anti-Assad fighters techniques on the accurate use of weapons and explosives against Assad regime forces, the sources said.

Unlike the previous position of the United States and Western countries not to arm the Syrian rebels, U.S. president Barack Obama and Cameron are considering to intervene in Syria and to enforce a no-fly zone, the sources added.

Earlier this week, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad showed defiance when he appeared on Russian television warning against any intervention. Assad promised to take the fight till the end. “I’m Syrian, I was made in Syrian and I have to live in Syria and die in Syria,” he said.

During his visit to Syrian refugee camps in Jordan, Cameron urged the United States to pressure the international community to offer more help to Syrians who were forced to leave their country due to ongoing violence.

“Right here in Jordan I am hearing appalling stories of what has happened inside Syria and one of the first things I want to talk to Obama about is how we must do more to try and solve this crisis,” Cameron said.

Since March 2011, an overall death toll of more than 37,000 was recorded by the monitoring group, the Observatory of Human Rights. The New York Times said more than 20,000 members of the Syrian army have defected and joined the Free Syrian Army across the country

NATO will defend alliance member Turkey, which struck back after mortar rounds fired from Syria landed inside its border, the alliance’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a meeting in Prague on Monday.

“NATO as an organization will do what it takes to protect and defend Turkey, our ally. We have all plans in place to make sure that we can protect and defend Turkey and hopefully that way also deter so that attacks on Turkey will not take place,” he said.

Tens of al-Qaeda terrorists have been deployed along the Turkish border with Syria in a region in the vicinity of the city of Aleppo, a bastion of armed rebels and terrorist groups fighting the Damascus government, dispatches said on Monday.

According to FNA dispatches, members of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nasra (Victory Front) have been stationed in border areas North of Aleppo under the support of the Turkish troops.

Meantime, the Syrian army continued its operations in Sheikh Saeed neighborhood in Southern Aleppo and declared the area as “secured zone.”

Are some newcomers on SC sincere in their suggestions and attempts to engage or is it the ‘second card’ being played?

12th August

“The Iranains would basically like the Assad regime to stay in power, but they recognise the ‘realpolitik’ that the rebels are getting more and more support from outside …. If the Iranians cannot ensure that [Assad stays in power], they must play a second card and that is indeed to try and ensure they have role in the transition to whatever will follow the Assad regime.”

You’re pointing out the obvious, and yet you don’t understand what I say.

No one is equating Alawites with the regime (apart from the really desperate folk on both sides). I’m simply explaining the motives of many Alawites who still support it, and no, it is not about “privilege” in their minds, but about mere survival.

This is a truth, and no matter how you tap-dance and sing, it won’t change until the opposition isn’t dominated by their direct enemies in the form of the MB and other such groups.

Just like the opposition will never accept to negotiate with current Ba’ath members.

Based on facts that everyone knows. But sure, if you have exact statistics, which we all know do not exist, be my guest.

First, Zahle is not Maronite, they are a minority there, the inhabitants are mainly other kinds of Eastern Christians. And these never fought Muslims in recent times because they are usually left leaning and pan-Arab. Your unfounded hubris astounds me.

And no, if we get a truly secular Syria, there is no need for a split, we need to exclude the MB and Ba’ath from a future unity government. Otherwise we’ll get another Lebanon.

The reality about those who praise Gulf countries; Qatar was stupid enough to participate in PISA, and had their 15 years olds compared to their international peers. There is little reason to think that other GCC coutries are any different, but at least they were smart enough not to have their youth tested

Batta has killed more Arabs in 20 months than Israel did in the past 20 years. “Muqawama” LOOOOL!

Al-Bong is going to be harping about that “test” way into his old age, as if one number on a graph can tell you everything about a society. Only a simplistic neo-Nazi could believe so. Qatar should be congratulated for taking part in that test, unlike the Iranians and Baathists who were probably too chicken to do so. Who is better, someone who comes in 9th out of 10 in a race, or the dude who wastes his life drinking and inhaling from “Al-Bong” LOL!

Oil is not a guarantee for wealth. Just look at Iran, a country where they aren’t even allowed to show chicken on TV anymore because it’s become such a luxury item.

It is a damning indictment of Batta’s rule that Jordan,Lebanon and Turkey all have higher per capita incomes than Syria, despite Syria’s wealth in resources. For that fact alone Batta should have been kicked out. But no, Al-Bong and co keep repeating the mantra “Batta or we burn the country”.

And their worship of the father. Oh…my…God! If my own father had lost every war he’d fought (including one with Jordan), caved in to the Turks over abdullah Ocalan, and left the country as backwards as he did, I’d be too ashamed to go into politics, nevermind putting his pictures up everywhere. Oh the shame, the terrible terrible shame that any normal person would feel. But of course, Qurdahans are mentality twisted individuals, who have proven that they cannot co-exist in a modern, civilized society.

“Need permission to travel from one Saudi city to another” hahahahaa. By the time we are finished with you Al-Bong, you people will need permission from Adnan ar’our to screw your wives. Think China’s “One child” policy is draconian? Just wait until you’ve seen my mandatory sterilization policy for anyone even suspected of being a shabih. Start cleaning your Facebook accounts, peasants.

Har har har Al-Bong, you are indeed clueless. Ever heard of the King Khaled Specialist Hospital in Riyadh? One of the world’s finest research hospitals. People come from around the world to be treated there. In sharp contrast to the filthy hospitals all named after Basel the drunk driver.

Generation after generation of Arabs, Indians, Pakistanis and Filipinios have all worked in the Gulf, raised their children in the Gulf, and had seen those children come back to the Gulf, to start the cycle anew. While the only thing generational in Syria have been all the Syrians who unfortunately have left the country for the Gulf or to work as menial laborers in Lebanon. And yet the neo-Nazi menhebakjis like Al-Bong continue to wave Batta’s picture and prostrate themselves before what few statues are left of his daddy “Batta or we burn the country snoooooooort like, muqawama, man,dude,like,mega-ohm resistance”

“Educative performance is the single best determinent of economic success and innovations”

And only a stoned out neo-Nazi simpleton (like Al-Bong) could think that one number on a test can tell you everything you need to know about the entire Gulf’s educational system, hence their supposed primitiveness as societies. Why didn’t your beloved Iranian theocracy or failed Baathist state send students to the test? Were they afraid the questions would pollute the minds of the test takers with Imperialist Zionist doctrine?

But what do you expect from a people so primitive they claimed to have invented Hurricane Sandy

“And only a stoned out neo-Nazi simpleton (like Al-Bong) could think that one number on a test can tell you everything you need to know about the entire Gulf’s educational system, hence their supposed primitiveness as societies. ”

Quite the contrary, their primitive character was well known, no need to look at their educative system.

But with these numbers, we now know that they perform as well as the stunted children of Kyrgystan, quite a feat.

Yes, reading can be hard through all that bong smoke, and when your brain doesn’t function very well even when not under the influence of whatever it is you smoke.

“but I can tell you that your a dead wrong, as usual”

Uh, you can tell this even though I showed you up for the ignorant stoned out far-right extremist you are, thanks to your ridiculous “you need permission to travel between Saudi cities”.

This is how menhebakjis debate, by relying on information that aren’t facts, but myths and rumors passed along from one Qurdahan imbecile to the next, like a game of Chinese whisper. By the time their information reaches this forum, the phrase “Al-Jazera weather says it will be cold in Damascus today” has become “Al-Jazeera is sending coded signals via its weather coverage to the Zionist-Cia-Salafi-Wahabi-Ottoman terrorists in Damascus”.

Only a people totally stoned out everyday could come up with such a ridiculous “conspiracy”, right Al-Bong?

Pft, you wanna compare swords, little man? I know your “dong” was the template for CERN’s search for illusive particles, but I pack what I like to call my “Sixth Pillar of Islam”, hehehehehehehe.

Need permission to travel between Saudi cities, hahahaha. This is the quality of information menhebakjis bring to this forum, that and their obsession with a graph on which neither the Iranians nor Baathists even dared appear on. Kudos to the children of Qatar, for being part of the world community. Which is better than students unlucky enough to study in Assadstan, who are taught that the world community are conspiring against them. Poor souls, they are going to grow up to be paranoid stoned out junkies, like Al-Bong, who managed the feat without ever having lived in Syria.

So Amjad, did you find out who’s who, finally? I know it takes more time with a simple mind, but still.

“Sixth Pillar of Islam”, I don’t think so, your permanent need to start bickering and use foul language on the interwebs probably denotes a deficiency in that department. So what’s the point of your online tantrums, genius? You’re wasting everyone’s time here.

“It was really nice from you to demonstrate my point about Gulf retardation. ”

I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you over the sound of yet another unfortunate Syrian getting his GCC residency stamped at the airport. *thump* and there’s another one. *thump* and again. Gosh, the entry borders into Syria a bit quite lately, aren’t they?

Seriously, how is it possible that Lebanon and Jordan could have higher per capita incomes than Syria. Syria shouldnt be a poor country, with the region’s most backwards infrastructure and educational system, with hundreds of university students packed into one class. Terrible, dreadful. Here Al-Bong, have another go at this “herb” while you forget the sorry state your “beloved leader” is in.

*thump* Oh wait, wasn’t that your beloved leader’s sister just arriving in Dubai? LOOOOOL! “Gulf primitiveness”, then tell the b*tch to take her ass and her brats back to your glorious Assadstanian paradise

Without weapons from the West, the rebels can hold the status quo. They win in 15 years when the regime’s army collapses from lack of money. Once the regime can no longer pay its soldiers, there is NO reason why the Sunni conscripts will continue fighting. The Alawites might continue fighting, but the Sunnis abandon it completely. Syria turns into Afghanistan.

With weapons from the West, the rebels can win in 3-5 years. Assad dies, or goes into exile. Syria turns into Lebanon. The country is mostly destroyed, BUT it can recover.

Said the guy who tried to peddle false information about Saudi Arabia, and glorifies extremist right wing neo-Nazism. And again, why didn’t your beloved Iranian theocracy or Baathist students take part in the test you’ve been whining about? I wonder if they could even understand the questions. Didn’t your beloved Ayatollah once say “Economics is for donkeys”. And yet here we are, where chicken is now a luxury item in Iran. Here, have another hit Al-Bong.

The Kurds seem sooooo happy to tear down Hafiz’s picture. Is there ANY place the Assad gangs can evacuate without having the mukhabarat offices burned to the ground 10 minutes later?

Your depiction isn’t exactly true; there are so many poors in the Arab world who only dreamt to work in Gulf countries, yet we all know that they prefer to import millions of Indians and Pakistanis.

Makes sense, no political string attached, and they can be treated as slaves. Those migrant workers in Qatar earn 400/500 dollars a month, while the native Qatari, 40000.

I’m sure you’ll tell us about the investments promised by Qatar in Egypt or Gaza etc…, but that won’t fly, the bulk of their billions go to Europe or the US or any other lucrative venture in the world. Yes Gulf Arabs, designed to be western lackeys, are really the shame of the Arabs.

Or if they don’t want to do that, allow the GCC and Turkey to use the American arms they have to arm the FSA. Notice how all the simplistic SANA press releases talk about the army destroying pick up trucks. Seriously, if this really was a CIA-Zionist-Wahabi conspiracy, you’d think SANA would have a stinger or TOW missile by now to showcase.

This is how menhebakji Bonged-out thinking goes;

1) The West is arming the rebels

2) The opposition’s political party’s are too disunited,therefore the West will never arm the rebels

3) Go back to 1 and keep going in circles, like a retard looking for a $100 note in the corner of a circular room.

Iran didn’t participate because they weren’t included in the program, like Saudi Arabia and most countries smart*ass.
The test was primarily designed for developed countries, it’s an OECD study, some others countries were allowed in like China or Qatar.

“Said the guy who tried to peddle false information about Saudi Arabia, and glorifies extremist right wing neo-Nazism.”

Considering how much the rebels have accomplished WITHOUT large foreign backing, the rebels will give a good return on investment. In contrast, the Assad regime has squandered most of its advantages. It still has air-power, but that won’t last forever.

The regime is trying to negotiate because it knows it cannot sustain a long war of attrition. It hoped that its recent bombing campaign would be enough to get the rebels to quit, similar to what the Americans tried in Vietnam and the Russians tried in Afghanistan.

But it isn’t working.

Guerilla wars and insurgencies are not won in a year. Or even 5 years. It took the Vietnamese 20 years to beat the French and the Americans. It took the Afghans 10 years to beat the Russians. How long will it take for the rebels to take out this regime?

“there are so many poors in the Arab world who only dreamt to work in Gulf countries, yet we all know that they prefer to import millions of Indians and Pakistanis.”

And now Al-Bong whines that the GCC don’t allow in enough Arabs. Seriously dude, make up your mind what your narrative is. It would be very racist of the GCC to allow in only Arabs. And yet as you say, millions of Shia Pakistanis and Indians and even Iranians have found gainful employment in the Gulf, generation after generation. You want to talk about income disparity? Not a single expat living in the Gulf would give up their lives there for what they had back home.

” and they can be treated as slaves”

It’s obvious by now you’ve never been in the workforce. Take the most enlightened labor laws in the world, and your boss can still make you feel like he’s running a slave farm for the first few years of your professional life.

“but that won’t fly, the bulk of their billions go to Europe or the US or any other lucrative venture in the world”

Well, tell that to your Rami Makhlouf, who took out Cypriot nationality. And Europe and the USA offer much more sophisticated investment environments, unlike Syria where you have to be a Makhlouf to make a buck. And why haven’t the Gulf been investing in your beloved China? GDP not big enough yet?

Once more, Al-Bong subjects this forum to his ill informed “analyses”, because he just needs to hear himself talk. Your family must be glad you found this website and they are spared your “opinions”.

“Yes Gulf Arabs, designed to be western lackeys, are really the shame of the Arabs.”

And yet your prethident’s sister has no problem in abandoning the Baathist paradise and taking up residence in the Gulf. Shameful indeed. Terrible, shocking. I hope the UAE is charging her sufficient “service tax” hehehehe.

“The test was primarily designed for developed countries, it’s an OECD study, some others countries were allowed in like China or Qatar.”

Eh he, keep spinning those wheels Al-Bong, you are really kicking up sand. Is this the first ever test conducted? No. If Iran was confident enough of its students, it would have screamed and whined to take part. But it’s like a kid who is crap at sports, just thankful it hasn’t been picked for a team, and gets to sit out the sports lesson instead of humiliating itself infront of the whole school.

Again, why has your prethident’s sister gone and set up camp in the “shame of the Arabs”?

The problem Marigoldran, with these comparisons Vietnam, Afghanistan, post-war China, is that in each case the enemy of the rebellion was a foreign occupier, the Americans, the Soviets, or the Japanese (among others in this case).

The Syrian Army, well, is Syrian. So there won’t be a point in your “war of attrition” where they will say, “let’s pack our bags and leave, that’s not worth it anymore”. Habib explained that already.

‘is that in each case the enemy of the rebellion was a foreign occupier”

Oh my God, please, enough “analyses”! It hurts my head to think down to menhebakji level. Every single one of those “occupiers” had a client government they were supporting. And what happened once the armies left? That government collapsed. The South Vietnamese government couldn’t survive on its own without US military backing. Same with the communist Afghan government.

The Baathist regime is one that does not even have enough loyal troops to take back Aleppo, or keep the Kurdish areas. It is sustained only by Russian veto and Iranian aid. Russia apparently isn’t so committed to Batta that it is willing to send in troops to prop him, like it did in Georgia and Afghanistan.

Spin it anyway you will, it does not look good at all for Batta, with his ever shrinking enclaves.

No, Albo, that is wrong. At this point many Sunnis already see the Alawites as a “foreign occupier” of their country. The regime is certainly treating large swathes of Syria as foreign territory, bombing it as if it was another country.

The Alawites will continue fighting, regardless of what happens. You are right: they have nowhere to go. But the Sunni conscripts that make up the bulk of the army can defect and join the other side. Once that happens en masse, the regime collapses because there simply aren’t enough Alawites to hold the country.

At this point, large amounts of Sunni manpower are sequestered in regime army barracks. They are afraid of letting the soldiers go, because they’re likely to join the opposition. At the same time, these soldiers are too unreliable to be used in major ground offensives.

But this cannot continue forever. The regime still has to pay and feed its Sunni soldiers who are doing nothing, except sitting in their barracks.

If I was a Sunni conscript, I’d be ok with the current state of affairs. I’m being paid to do nothing. I’m not going to defect because it’s too risky. But once the pay stops coming in, and once it’s obvious the regime can no longer punish my defection, I will defect.

How quickly the bonged out menhebkajis forget just a few months ago, when Mjabali and his ilk were all dreaming and scheming about a Alawite “homeland” on the coast. That idea died a quick death. Not exactly on par as the “Homeland for the Jewish People” idea, eh?

“Once more, Al-Bong subjects this forum to his ill informed “analyses”, because he just needs to hear himself talk. Your family must be glad you found this website and they are spared your “opinions”.”

I think that defines you quite well. I like to argue, but you simply never answer on the point. You’re all about diversions, and moving the goal posts, pointing at other problems and questions so as to avoid the very subject discussed. And usually you can’t learn to behave on a discussion forum.

The menial workers in Gulf countries are described as slaves, because they have no rights, not because they are actual slaves like the blacks used to be in the american south, mind you. Still in some case their situation can be extremely dire, with their passports confiscated. Even your average skilled Arab worker, engineers for example, often complain about their conditions.
The fact that remittances are sent? Of course they will be sent, no one would bother to go to these hell-holes otherwise. That doesn’t answer anything.

Well well Majbali, thank you for the explanation. I must confess that the insult Ya Walad that I received multiple times came from Alawis. I was not sure whether it was a particularity of their culture or not. It seems to be not exclusive to this group but as you say a Syrian insult of immaturity.

So thank you for the explanation.

Now the post:

1. For those that are asking for dialogue and for those that are asking for negotiations. Let me remind the audience that dialogue is different than negotiations. Dialogue does not imply recognition of the other, whereas negotiations implies equal recognition of the positions and most importantly legitimacy of the other.

2. Dialogue does not commit anyone to any action or force the issues and leaves all topics to be decided. A party in a dialogue can refuse to address an issue or a topic. Negotiations commits the parties to address an agenda of issues and there is no skirting of the agenda items.

3. Dialogue does not commit either party from continuing a variety of actions on the ground, whereas negotiations imply that a minimum cessation of actions for the talks to be meaningful and productive. You cannot negotiate while the cannons are blazing; you have to have a truce. Even if negotiating the terms of a surrender, a truce has to happen to allow for the terms to be presented to either party.

4. Dialogue implies that one party can choose who to dialogue with and refuse others while negotiations imply that either party brings all of its members to the table. So the idea of dialogue is being used to divide the country.

5. When the advocates of dialogue say this is the only way may I ask what options do they have if the opposition refuses? Continue the slaughter? Convince the communities supporting them that this is a fight to the death?

6. Dialogue implies a precondition of no winner and no loser, and this is clearly a non starter. A consensus a la Libnan will only postpone the explosion and leave the country ever more stable.

7. The Alawi community suffered for generations but this is no justification for the current generation of Sunnis to suffer the mistakes of their forefathers. When someone on this post says that the Sunnis suffered for 40 years but no one mentions that the Alawis suffered for hundreds of years it imputes guilt on a whole sect and outside of time and epoch. It is not intrinsic to Alawi faith or culture to be oppressive, it is tyranny that is oppressive and murderous and this can be in any form and with any ideology. Look the followers of the peaceful Buddha are oppressing Rhohingha in Myanmar.

Now let me get back to Majbali

It seems that you have a stick in your throat about old money.

Well Nasser and then the Baath took ALL of the old money and confiscated almost everything and barred many from any positions in higher education and in government posts. But this was fantastic for many pulled themselves from the straps of their boots and now are prosperous and educated and most all live decently and without the need to ask anyone for help.

Let me share with you that these confiscations led to the creation of a family trust, whereby all members of the family contributed to the fund in secret and totally voluntarily and this fund was used to make sure that the poorer members of the family never asked for help and all absolutely all got an education.

So eat your heart out about old money, it is regimes like the Baath and their Zombie communist ideologies based on hatred that will be thrown into the dustbin of history. Even the racist regime hiding behind a farce of secularism and socialism and resistance to hegemony that is going to be thrown into the dustbin of history.

“The Alawi community suffered for generations but this is no justification for the current generation of Sunnis to suffer the mistakes of their forefathers. ”

Well said. The “suffering” the Alawites endured was not very different, unique or special from that suffered by thousands of other sects, minorities, immigrants etc all over the world and throughout the ages, but the Alawites are the only ones who use it as an excuse to murder, rape and pillage an entire country.

Of course, if one is a person of ill-defined parentage, wondering if Aldendeshe’s feudal granddaddy screwed their grandmum in some farm near Talkalak, then yeah, that could leave one with a massive chip on one’s shoulder.

“Gosh, how can I put this. If a certain sect have a propensity for rape, child murder, abductions, torture, etc, then yeah, expect to be hated, and with good justification. You people earned it many times over. Just as the Germans were loathed throughout Europe for years after WW 2, there is now a certain stigma associated with being a Qurdahan.”

Hey nazi lover, you can not take the nazis out of your texts. Your are a nazi lover, so why don’t you man up and confess?

The history of your sect is one of the worst histories in this world. You and your crew try to hide it. But, you can not block the truth.

Your sect invented religious cleansing. Your sect for the last one thousand years is noted for its ruthless violent history.

The history of your sect shows how killing others is the norm. It is documented in your literature. Today is no difference.

Yes there are Alawi criminals these days, but the Alawi creed never said one single word about killing others. So, ya munafiq of Arabia what do you have to say to these facts?

That was still occupations manned by foreign forces and that couldn’t be sustained without them. It’s normal that your head hurts, your comparison is bollocks.

“The Baathist regime is one that does not even have enough loyal troops to take back Aleppo, or keep the Kurdish areas. It is sustained only by Russian veto and Iranian aid.”

Let’s see if you can discuss seriously. Do you deny the extent of foreign support the rebels have received? Do you think that had Syria been an island, like Bahrein, the Sunni majority would have had anymore success than the Shia had in Bahrein? Let’s see your answer. Let’s see if you can argue seriously, something you have been incapable of so far, between your hissy fits and grown-up tantrums.

“The history of your sect is one of the worst histories in this world”

Well, I wasn’t aware that non-practicing Muslim had a history as a sect. You see, I don’t identify myself by my sect, and all this “my fatwa is bigger than yours” is something only a Alawite with a chip on his shoulder needs to indulge in.

But let’s examine “the facts”. Count up all the people killed in Islamic wars and strife. They do not come close to the number of people killed by Hitler, Stalin, the Japanese in China, or the Chinese among themselves. Oh, and all those people were “secular”.

Mjabali is a strange creature, someone who claims to be secular yet identifies very strongly with a discredited sect. His entire identity is wrapped up in it.

“Yes there are Alawi criminals these days”

Which, we shall admit, is more than 99.9% of the Alawites will admit to.

“but the Alawi creed never said one single word about killing others”

How the hell do you know? Does anyone know what the Alawite creed is? I’ve met Alawites who dont know what their creed is supposed to be. And I couldn’t care less. I don’t judge someone by what is in their religious books, I judge them by their actions, and what they think those books tell them to do. That is a concept that the bonged out menhebakjis do need some time to assimilate 🙂

” Do you deny the extent of foreign support the rebels have received?”

Enlighten us, and this from a guy who said that I couldnt travel to a Saudi city without permission from a kafeel (who by the way usually has numerous companies to run and really cant be bothered everytime an employee wants to go to another city). What “foreign aid” do you imagine in your bonged out world the rebels to be receiving?

“That was still occupations manned by foreign forces and that couldn’t be sustained without them”

This, ladies and gentlemen, is an example of someone who twists and turns in his desperate attempts to show how “knowledgeable” he is, until finally he has completely lost sight of the original argument. The idea that the Syrian insurgency has no parallels in history is an idiotic one. I have shown how idiotic that notion is. Therefore, kindly explain how a man who can’t even regain half of Aleppo can hope to regain the rest of the country. And try to do it without resorting to neo-Nazism or the bong.

“Do you think that had Syria been an island, like Bahrein, the Sunni majority would have had anymore success than the Shia had in Bahrein?”

Let us take this even further. Why did the revolutions in Tunisia,Egypt, Libya and Syria succeed, whereas the one in Iran sputtered and failed after just six weeks, and that when the Ayatollahs didn’t even use one tenth of the firepower Qadafi and Batta have used?

Because not enough Iranians wanted freedom, and the ones that did, did not want it bad enough to risk their lives, homes and livelihoods for. Freedom comes at a cost, a cost apparently the Iranians were not prepared to pay. Now they can enjoy dreaming of chicken with their literacy rate in the mid 70 percentage.

Religious fanatics who think they have a direct phone line with God, have at least an excuse, ridiculous and pathetic as it is, for their bigotry, you have none.
Most Alawis don’t care about religion. They were just borne in Alawi families. Some of their ancestors made a choice, yours another, but they were all, or most of them, old-stock Syrians.
Big fu*cking deal.

You have no excuse for perpetuating prejudice and hatred that were rooted in beliefs, the same beliefs you boast not to care about.

“Here is a direct insult from al-Munafiq Amjad of Arabia towards Islam”

Wait, haven’t you been calling me a Salafi for the past year? If I was a Salafi/Wahabi/Whatever, I should find all humor about Islam offensive. As it is, I have a prayer rug with images of 72 virgins on it that I keep on my wall, hehehehee.

Dude, don’t give in to p*nis envy, you have enough emotionally and psychological baggage as it is, what with your ill defined heritage.

“You have no excuse for perpetuating prejudice and hatred that were rooted in beliefs, the same beliefs you boast not to care about”

Uh yeah, but dude, 79.6% literacy rate? Seriously? If you have a farm full of animals you could have taught more of them to read after 40 years. What has Batta and his daddy been doing all that time, besides waiting for the appropriable moment to retaliate against Israel and taking out Cypriot nationality?

Yes I am secular. Secularism scares you. Secularism scares the system you defend.

Again: there is not one single Alawi text that calls for the murder of anyone. I know what they believe in. I read their books. It makes no sense believe me. But, unlike your sect, they never cared about talking about the killing of other people.

al-Assad family, ya walad, is not a religious family. They never cared about anything but themselves. They pretended they are Sunnis, and never did a thing for the Alawi creed.

The Alawis in general are secular and do not care about religion. Thank you Alawi parents for this.

How many times do I need to say this to you and the other zealots from your sect on this board?

Cough cough, it’s “born”, not borne, Mr 79.6% literacy rate. Alawites had a chance to rise above the legacy of Assad seniors and juniors. They didn’t take it, and so will pay the price for their bad decisions. Germans turned their back on extremism and anti-semitism after World War 2. It is unfortunate that the Alawites could not make the same leap.

I stop you there. Syria is far from having succeeded. Fragmentation of the country isn’t a success, don’t you have some standards dammit?
I note you don’t want to answer about Bahrein. I don’t care about Iran. It is obvious that without foreign support to aid them, the Bahreini majority couldn’t pose any military to their rulers. To the contrary, Saudi forces crossed the bridge between the two countries and secured the dictatorship.
It is plain obvious that without foreign backing, the Syrian rebels couldn’t have kept their momentum and would be in the same situation as that of the Bahreinis protesters now.

BOTH sides have relied heavily on foreign support to continue fighting. Regime propaganda about the opposition receiving foreign support is disingenuous because the regime has received much more in terms of money and weapons.

Iran, for example, has spent BILLIONS propping up the regime. So has Russia, in the forms of loans. In terms of absolute numbers, the regime has probably gotten more foreign assistance than the rebels. If anything, the regime is the one being propped by foreign powers to continue their destruction of the country.

And yet the regime cannot win or even begin winning. It continues to lose territory in the north, and cannot hold territory in the south or the east.

“How many times do I need to say this to you and the other zealots from your sect on this board?”

Well you can keep saying it all you want. Liars keep repeating the same lie again and again, in the hope that people will eventually believe it.

“They pretended they are Sunnis, and never did nothing for the Alawi creed. ”

If only you people had realized that 20 months ago, the country could have been spared alot of grief. As it is, Qurdahan will now be given over to those magnificent Saudis and Libyans and Chechens and Afghans who left their homes to fight Alawite tyranny. We may not like their methods, but alas, this is “total war” as Batta put it, not a football game.

“I read their books. It makes no sense believe me.”

Try laying off the bong a bit.

“The Alawis in general are secular and do not care about religion”

Do you think religion is confined just to ancient words from ancient prophets? Scientology is apparently a religion, a man made one at that. And “Assad or we burn the country” “No God but Assad” is the most perverted form of religion I have ever heard of. And you still haven’t proven that Muslims killed more people than your beloved secular Hitler, Stalin, Japanese and Chinese.

Typo, Mr I can’t distinguish between Ali and Albo, typo. I know you’re desperate to look a bit more intelligent, given how you ridiculed yourself just a bit earlier but that won’t do.

How literacy rates in Gulf countries matter anyway? You don’t build advanced economies just with literacy, and given their GDP per capita, absence of sanctions, all Gulf countries should be at 99% like many developed and ex-commie countries. This isn’t exactly a comparison that favors your patrons here.

Albo at 178 is an example of someone answering with no answer. “I don’t care about Iran” means that Iran is an inconvenient example to cite that doesn’t sit well with his theory.

The Bahraini protests petered out because it did not have the support of the majority of the population. Same with Iran. If Batta had the love of his people, how come the Kurds are busy pulling down his pictures?

Again, how much aid do you imagine the rebels are getting? Dushka trucks? Seriously?

Typo, Mr I can’t distinguish between Ali and Albo, typo. I know you’re desperate to look a bit more intelligent, given how you ridiculed yourself just a bit earlier but that won’t do.

By the way, we were comparing Syria and Bahrein. You were he one making a diversion with Iran. So now you think that the Shia majority in Bahrein is ok religiously with their Sunni rulers? That they are happy with their monarchical regime?

Failed? My blog has been quoted in the BBC and the Guardian. Just because Im too busy with the immediate tasks on Twitter doesn’t mean it has “failed”. Articles keep getting hits long after I’ve written them. But I’m glad you are a loyal reader and apparently check on it everyday. I’ll be sure to put up some new material for your entertainment.

“So, Amajad of Arabia’s dick is the 6th pillar of Islam? Any thoughts on this?”

Oh my Mjabali, homoerotic fantasies on Syria Comment? Now this must be a new low for this website. Discussing my “pillar” so openly. I’d be flattered if I wasn’t so grossed out 🙂

You are living in Saudi Arabia, where saying that your dick is the 6th pillar of Islam is punishable, so what do you think if I ask al-Arour about this?

So, according to what you say that the Muslims should worship your dick? and it is one of the pillars of their faith?

I promise you that I will send an e mail to one of the Sheikhs in Saudi Arabia to ask him what he thinks of the matter? I am going to send them a link to your failed blog so you may get some traffic there. Heheheheeee, to talk like you for a bit.

But you claimed that “my sect” (whatever that is supposed to be) had the worst history in the world. I give you one man who is worst than all the Imams and Mullahs in history, and you suddenly disown him? He was secular like you are claiming to be. It really doesn’t bode well for you when you can’t even put up a defense to the first counter example I offer up. Terrible, pitiful, about what you’d expect from someone happy with a 79.6% literacy rate. Get rid of the Qurdahans, and we will definitely gain a few points.

“So now you think that the Shia majority in Bahrein is ok religiously with their Sunni rulers?”

“Religiously ok”? What in God’s name is that even supposed to mean? I can understand people having economic or social grievances, but this is the first time I’ve heard of being “religiously ok”. Or is that code you neo-Nazi types use for bigotry and religious intolerance?

Speaking of which, how come your Batta’s custom made constitution forbids Christians from holding the presidency.

“I know you’re desperate to look a bit more intelligent”

This from the stoner who has not answered a single one of my questions, among them;

1) Why is your president’s sister hiding in Dubai?

2) How can you explain Syria’s pitiful literacy rate compared to the Gulf? I see you’ve stopped bringing up that test you were going on about. That turned into quite the fiasco for you.

3) What do you have to say about all the money Qatar poured into Lebanon and Syria?

4) What exactly do you imagine in your bong filled world, the extent of the foreign aid to the rebels to be?

Take your time, Im sure your answers will be as ill informed as your “Saudi permission slip to move between the cities” bit.

“Negotiations, dialogue whatever: do something to stop the violence and stop the destruction of the country.”

No, too early. We haven’t cleansed enough of the country from Qurdahans yet.

First you were saying that the rebels were foreign backed mercenaries.

When you discovered you couldn’t beat the “foreign backed mercenariea”, you subjected this forum to long whines about a separate Qurdahan state.

And now you’ve discovered that even that idea is unworkable (which I could have told you from the first moment, ya batekh where your brains should be), you talk about “negotiations”. Not while I have anything to say about it.

Sixth pillar, because I use it to crush Islamophobes like you. Hurts right? I know it does, you aren’t my “first”, hehehe.

Your sect did damage from the moment it came into being till now.
Let us say from around the tenth or eleventh C. till now, and of course to the future. That is about one thousand years and counting of hostile ideology that is ready to pounce and make the other disappear. To debate that against Hilter does not make any sense to me. Let us put it against other religious ideologies.

I like to concentrate NOW on one topic, which is: What do you think if you we ask a Sheikh in Saudi Arabia about what he thinks of your Dick as the 6th pillar of Islam and that it should be worshiped?

Just like a menhebakji zealot. When the facts don’t go his way, he ignores the facts. He will print out that graph and put it under his pillow when he sleeps, anything to deny he was wrong, wrong, wrooooooong.

79.6%. Terrible, dreadful. Shameful even. The prethident’s sister pleasuring the Emirati pillars just so she can flee Syria. Terrible, horrible. More Gulf women athletes at London 2012 than the Baathists. How sad.

No. Leadership roles and the building of Syria must be given first to those who stayed behind, better persons than me. I however, will clean out the weeds and burn the trash, so these magnificent people will have a fresh, new start, without needing to get their hands dirty. Someone has to exterminate the vermin and cockroaches, so that a house can be remodeled.

So calling someone a Nawari is a diss for you. heheeeeheeee haaa huuu heeeee

I know that you are not a full Syrian, probably half. I think your mother is non-Syrian. It is obvious from the way you speak that you did not get any real Syrian rearing at your house to begin with. tsk tsk tsk….

Dude answer first to why you insulted Islam and Muslims by claiming that your dick should be worshiped and it it the 6th pillar of Islam?

“I know that you are not a full Syrian, probably half. I think your mother is non-Syrian.”

Well, that’s progress at least. Before, the menhebakjis like Mjabali were screaming that I was obviously based in New York/Washington/London/Tel Aviv (all at the same time). They refused to believe I had ever been to Syria. The nawari of ill-defined parentage at least allowing for the possibility that I am half Syrian is the equivalent of him saying “I love you man, let me fondle your pillar”.

“Focusing on technocrats and rebuilding and including Allawites in the coalition.”

If you can find any Alawites worthy to share in a free Syria, be my guest. I’ve stopped looking, and will assume that every Alawite is an informer and shabih who has sold out his country to the Ayatollahs, unless proven otherwise.

“Thought to comprise approximately 10 per cent of Syria’s population – with a variety of sects, including Greek Orthodox, Melkite Greek Catholics, Syriac Orthodox, Armenians, Maronites, Chaldeans, and Assyrians – the Christian community of Syria has been the subject of considerable media attention ever since unrest arose against the regime of Bashar al-Assad in March 2011.

However, rather than looking at claims of incidents of anti-Christian violence and trying to verify them, articles have generally repeated the obvious point that there are concerns that the same fate could befall Syrian Christians, as with the numerous incidents of persecution of Iraqi Christians by Islamic militants and, further, as with the outflow of hundreds of thousands of Christians from the country since 2003.

So, what are the main stories of the persecution of Christians in Syria? And, further to this, how can they be verified?

In this timely new report, Middle East analyst Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi separates the facts of Christian suffering in Syria from the propaganda originating from pro-Assad media outlets.”

“You could start with Samar Yazbek”

Yes, Miss Yazbek has been pointed out to me numerous times. I’ve gotten around that niggling little inconsistency by saying we will be offering her Homsi citizenship. There, see, I no longer have to distinguish between “good” Qurdahans or bad ones, since all the good ones will be elevated to Homsihood.

• BOTH sides have relied heavily on foreign support to continue fighting. Regime propaganda about the opposition receiving foreign support is disingenuous because the regime has received much more in terms of money and weapons. ••

Yeah but, their response would be that they are the Official syrian government, while the insurgents are outlaws and bandits.

There is a lack of a real World Order. We have no clear rules. When you have no rules, you can’t proceed towards meaningful content.

For example:
If people disagree on units of length, they can’t discuss lengths.
If people disagree on the meaning of words, they can’t have a talk.
If people disagree on the principles of global governance, then the world doesn’t move forward like it should.

Currently you have 2 totalitarian states blocking the Security Council, and 3 democratic states trying to get things done.

Syria is stuck because of this unresolved global issue. So the best solution is military action to clarify who the sole Superpower is.

Xi Jinping, China’s vice president and candidate for the top leadership position which comes up in 2 days time, has a daughter who studies at…wait for….Harvard University

Har har har har har. America is in demise Mr 79.6% Al-Bong? Har har har, no university good enough for the children of Chinese leaders? Its not like she is doing advanced studies there, she enrolled as a *freshman*. Didn’t you say that education is the end-all indicator of how well a society does? Here, have a shovel to dig yourself out of this one 🙂

Now you know why I’m a living legend 🙂

(in case the menhebakjis haven’t heard of Harvard, it’s a university in the USA, the country supposedly on its way to “demise” har har har)

199. AMJAD
”
Just like a menhebakji zealot. When the facts don’t go his way, he ignores the facts. He will print out that graph and put it under his pillow when he sleeps, anything to deny he was wrong, wrong, wrooooooong.
…
79.6%. Terrible, dreadful. Shameful even. If you have a farm full of animals you could have taught more of them to read after 40 years.

It matters more than you think. I searched for another source to have more recent numbers. The World Bank provided me with a figure for the year 2009: 84% of adults above age 15 in Syria can read (same age criterion in your stats).

It’s getting very close to Saudi 86,6%, even the error margin may cover the difference. But that’s not my point. Your point was that Syria hasn’t achieved universal literacy (or close), and that it’s the regime’s fault. Okay. Did it occur to you that universal primary education is often recent in developing countries? That for that reason, the literacy rates of adults can be low and that you have to wait for the younger generations to replace them? Let’s verify in Syria. The World Bank give numbers for the percentage of primary school enrollment, starting in 1980. In Syria, in percents:

1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 …
95 96 97 98 100

2007 2008 2009 2010
113 114 115 118

As we can see, universal education was achieved only under the regime. So you made an *ss of yourself once again. You may enquire, why the figures above 100, well it accounts for those who repeat their years, you must know as that must have been needed in your case, hehe.

Second mistake:
Your numbers about Gulf countries aren’t that brillant, and don’t help your case. 86.6% 96.3 % 93.3 % 92.6 % ?
Most advanced countries, some with GDP/head quite lower than your beloved Khalijis, do better and are at 99% on your list. Many commie and ex-commie countries as well, despite being much much poorer.
Korea, North 99%
Turkmenistan 98.8%
Albania 98.7%
Kyrgyzstan 98.7%
Mongolia 97.4%

See? Mongolia says hello. Communist countries excepted, what determines the level of literacy is the level of economic development. In the case of Syria, given its economic level, education policies were good by world standards. However, Gulf countries are sub-par. So you shot yourself in the foot here.

Last mistake: I have been very nice to remediate your lack of education and reasoning skills with all that, but you were completely off topic. The PISA scores I posted are for 15 years old, well past the age when they are taught to read. It’s about testing more advanced skills in maths, science, and reading comprehension (on that one, you’d have scored terribly as we saw).
The exercises are available online, they go from simple to rather complex, typically the harder ones are only solved by a small percentage of the students.

It never was about literacy. Kyrgyztan with its very high literacy, isn’t well known for its scientific patents, advanced tech? Right? The PISA data shows which countries have the best performing student in secondary schools, which predicts their future success in teriary education, then their subsequent ability to master complex professions and introduce innovations that will benefit their economy. This is why it is an excellent tool to predict future development, largely quoted by economists. It’s because of such data that they estimate the Chinese “human capital” to be much better than the Brazilian or Indian, and thus predict better prospects for the Chinese economy.

Capish? The Arabs used to have great sciences and technologies, but the Gulfies are lazy bums artificially turned rich. Their economy aren’t classified as advanced despite all their wealth. They are spreading ignorance and retard ideology to the wider arab and islamic world, and people like them are the reason why the ancient scientific prowess of Arabs and Muslims came to a halt, because they replaced it by sterile bigotry.

Al-Bong, congratulations, even the figures you mentioned give a mere 84% literacy for Syria, still pathetic even by regional standards. Do you think 84% is something to brag about after 40 years of one party rule? (probably inflated anyway, the way things work in Syria)

Saudi Arabia 86%

Jordan, 92%

Lebanon, 90%

Bahrain, 91%

Qatar, 95%

Kuwait, 94%

See, it’s not just the GCC that has done better than your Baathist paradise.

“The Arabs used to have great sciences and technologies, but the Gulfies are lazy bums artificially turned rich”

And yet in the basic test of who can read and write, they did better than anything your Baathist ever managed to achieve. Bringing up communist countries as a comparison is feeble, since it just shows that North Korea, the hermit kingdom, has done better than the state the Baathists built. It is a desperate comparison by a stoner who has dug himself into a ditch, and is oblivious to the fact that he is still shoveling downwards. 84% ya primitive inta? That’s something to brag about? Only someone with no shame would call countries with better literacy rates as “backwards”.

And trying to excuse Syria’s educational standards with its economic primitiveness sis the height of pathetic; who was responsible for Syria’s crappy economy over the past 40 years? Jordan and Lebanon have had greater obstacles to development, and yet Im sure those nationals are thanking heavens everyday they didn’t study at Baathist schools.

Apparently, you can take the Qurdahan out of the sh*t, but you can’t take the sh*t out of the Qurdahan.

“You insulted Islam, and did not even stop, and kept going. Wow.. Dude remember that you live in Saudi Arabia… ”

What happened to calling up sheikhs? I thought you’d be on the phone to all the satellite channels by now. Dude, don’t ever throw down a challenge you can’t meet, you will be haunted for it forever. Qurdahans, the gift that keep on giving. I’ll remind you about your spineless backing down every time I see you on 🙂

So, apparently Al-bong provided one source saying that a higher percentage of Syrians are in schools than the GCC, and yet the literacy rate for GCC populations are higher than Syria. What does that tell you? Any intelligent person doing proper analysis will tell you that that means that Baathist schools suck. How can so much of the population go through an educational system that turns out such an atrocious literacy rate? And having a higher rate of students repeat their years is not really something to brag about, which explains the 104% rate.

No figures for Bahrain or the UAE, so you got the numbers you quoted out of your butt 🙂

Seriously, why do you make up numbers when you know it’s so easy for someone to double check? Dude, that’s so pathetic. Stop twisting in the wind, it’s embarrassing to watch your stoner addled excuse for a brain try to excuse your prethident’s failures.

So let’s leave it here. I trashed your example, and what are you doing Amjad? More diversions. I linked the literacy rate to the level of wealth. You dind’t take note.

I explained you why literacy isn’t relevant anyway.
And we weren’t talking of children mortality.

As for Xi Jinping’s daughter, good for her. Know your enemy, they say 🙂 He himself went to the US 30 years ago with a delegation to study agricultural technics. Since then the Chinese have learnt a lot more, not just agriculture, but how to build nuclear plants for example. (from the French in this case). Now they are building 150 reactors on their own. That’s how you develop a country without oil.

This is hardly unusual for future politicians or the children of head of states to visit and study foreign countries. Most presidents in my country did it too. Of course Harvard is still the best University out there. Who told you otherwise?

“That for that reason, the literacy rates of adults can be low and that you have to wait for the younger generations to replace them?”

Your words, not mine. Now let’s see how fast you can move the goal posts, stoner boy.

Literacy rate, youth total (% of people ages 15-24)

Syria, 94%

Bahrain, 100%

Qatar 98%

Saudi Arabia 98%

Jordan 99%

Lebanon 99%

Even compared to neighboring countries, the Baathists have done pitifully. Each percentage point that can’t read and write in Syria represents untold thousands of wasted lives and potential. But apparently, it’s good enough for the stoner menhebakjis. I ask again, did Charlie Sheen teach you people the definition of winning? No wonder the country is in revolt.

How can anyone call the GCC primitive, and not die of shame? On every basis and measurable metric, the GCC have come out very favorably compared to the society that Baathism built, or failed to. It’s no wonder thousands of people worldwide line up at GCC embassies for visas (among them Besho’s sister, sister-Batta), and yet Al-Bong and Mjabali-I-suddenly-dont-know-what-Aror’s-Channel-Is arent among those desperate to come back to their Baathist paradise. Terrible, truly terrible.

Those figures 86.6% 96.3 % 93.3 % 92.6 % I took them from your post, they are the adult literacy rates.
Not the same as primary school enrollment. Do you want me to draw you a picture so that you finally understand?

Pffftttt, is that the excuse you are going with? Seriously? It had been better if you’d ignored the point altogether. Chinese going to study in the USA at such a young age aren’t going there to fight America, they are going there to become Americans. By the time they come back to China, thousands of years of Chinese culture will be replaced by a love for Lady Gaga. Heck, even Gangnam Style was Korean made famous by Youtube hehehehehe.

” I linked the literacy rate to the level of wealth”

Erroneous, and just stating a speculation is not proof of it, no matter how much you desperately need it to be so. In every single metric you care to mention, the Gulf are not the backwards primitive your low and fragile self esteem so desperately need to believe they are. But if that’s the case, bring back sister-Batta from Dubai to the Baathist paradise 🙂

And now you can’t even cite sources properly? Dude, I hope you didn’t sit for that test you keep going on about, you’d have taken down the average of the whole planet.

That was very sloppy of you, very very sloppy. You take the figures from one source, and compare them against the figures from another source. That is not how research is done, nor how any intelligent person presents “proof”. If Professor Landis’ students had gone about presenting papers the same way you just did (“uh, you know the inconvenient point that disproves my speculation? Ignore it, it isn’t relevant) they would have gone straight to academic probation.

Less bong for the rest of the semester, and maybe you’ll be ready to debate with the adults. Because right now all I see is a whiny little kid who keeps moving the goalposts anytime an inconvenient fact gets in his way.

“You take the figures from one source, and compare them against the figures from another source”
I compared them in the second point to the rates of other countries, within the same data subset. In the case of Syria, the absence of a more recent source required it, and I mentioned what I did.

As for the literacy rates being correlated to the level of income, it’s so obvious that I don’t know how you can come up with such stupid responses. For a start, look at the rankings you brought up (with the caveat of ex-socialist countries I mentioned).
I figure that you need to set your own pace, may be in a few days you will finally assimilate all the content of my post.

Maybe if I make Al-Bong facepalm himself enough times, he will knock himself out and his system can recover from all the “herbs”

“I compared them in the second point to the rates of other countries, within the same data subset. In the case of Syria, the absence of a more recent source required it, and I mentioned what I did.”

Dude, either read this slowly or have someone read it to you.

1) The data for literacy from Wikipedia shows a higher level of literacy in the Gulf than in Syria for ANY year you care to mention.

2) The same higher levels of Gulf,Jordanian and Lebanese literacy is observed in the World Bank data set you relied on.

3) In every other metric I mentioned, not only the Gulf but Jordan and Lebanon come out ahead of Syria. Jordan and Lebanon do not have oil, they had bigger obstacles to development than Syria (but apparently having a Baathist regime for 40 years is the biggest obstacle)

4) The ONLY numbers that you seem to take pride in are percentage of students enrolled in primary education. In what menhebakji neo-Nazi bong filled world can that metric possibly be more important than the end result, ie literacy? China turns out more engineers than the USA, but not a single Chinese university is in the top tier of universities world wide (as proven by the fact that the daughter of the Chinese VP is studying at Harvard).

Do you know why Syria has 118 percent? Because of a much higher failure rate for students. In the end, schools are crammed to little effect. THAT is how you interpret numbers.

Not only do the Gulf do better in education, but the menhebakjis cant even spin the numbers they insist show otherwise. Dude, go create more hurricanes inbetween bong hits.

You’re such a waste of time, it’s like I’m speaking to a hyperactive 6 year old who can’t concentrate and stay on his desk.

I mean, anyone who read that exchange have seen how many mistaken remarks you made and how you mischaracterized just every point I made on several posts. You really have comprehension problems and provided a hard proof here, for everyone to see.

I’m not ready to debate someone who needs several repetition of an argument to finally get it. As for your last revised post, it’s better, at last, but it’s still made up of diversions and off-subject comments. So I won’t bother. I know you’re an excited chap who needs to insult folks on the internet, I have limited patience for such teenage activities but I’ll reciprocate when I feel like it. If that’s how you like to spend your time.

Needless to say, Joshua will probably bring back a moderator because you and visitor can’t behave, otherwise his blog will go extinct, so you two enjoy your free ride until that happens.

“Joshua will probably bring back a moderator because you and visitor can’t behave, otherwise his blog will go extinct, so you two enjoy your free ride until that happens.”

Believe me, Syria Comment has survived much worse than this. You think I’m being too hard on you, Bong-Boi? You are still new, you have not seen me at my most active by any means. I am a one-man media department. Well, that’s what they called me over the Guardian’s comment section. Hehehehe.

“I know you’re an excited chap who needs to insult folks on the internet”

I live off the tears of white supremacists, Islamophobes and menhebakjis. I never go hungry. Mmmmmmmm…….